C / 1860 M1 (Great Comet)
| C / 1860 M1 (Great Comet) [i] | |
|---|---|
| Properties of the orbit ( animation ) | |
| Orbit type | parabolic |
| Numerical eccentricity | 1.0 |
| Perihelion | 0.293 AU |
| Inclination of the orbit plane | 79.3 ° |
| Perihelion | June 16, 1860 |
| Orbital velocity in the perihelion | 77.8 km / s |
| history | |
| Explorer | |
| Date of discovery | June 18, 1860 |
| Older name | 1860 III |
| Source: Unless otherwise stated, the data comes from JPL Small-Body Database Browser . Please also note the note on comet articles . | |
C / 1860 M1 (Great Comet) was a comet that could be seen with the naked eye in 1860 . Because of its great brightness, some count it among the " Great Comets ".
Discovery and observation
For observers on earth , this comet initially approached from the direction of the sun , which it passed on June 4, 1860 at a distance of only 3.5 ° , and therefore remained unobserved. When it suddenly appeared in the evening sky , it was already a bright object and was discovered by many people all over the world. The earliest observations may have been in Italy on the evening of June 18, 1860 , but in the days that followed there were independent reports of discoveries from across Europe and the eastern United States showing its brightness and visibility to the naked eye. In the United States alone, there were estimates of 50–100 independent discoveries, and so news of the new comet spread rapidly.
On June 22nd a tail 6-7 ° long had already developed. On the following days, the comet reached its greatest northerly declination and was observed at dusk in the northwest with a brightness of 3 mag and a tail length of 15-20 °.
The comet continued to approach the earth until the beginning of July and was then also visible from the southern hemisphere . On July 6, an observer in Australia estimated the brightness to be 2–3 mag and the tail length to be 8–9 °. Towards the end of July, the comet became more difficult to observe for observers in the northern hemisphere . In the course of August and September, the observations also decreased from the southern hemisphere, while the comet appeared weaker and weaker. The last observation was made on October 18 in South Africa .
The comet reached a maximum brightness of 1–2 mag.
Orbit
From about 300 observations over a period of 118 days, only an approximate parabolic orbit could be determined for the comet, which is inclined by around 79 ° to the ecliptic . The comet's orbit is thus almost perpendicular to the planets' orbital plane. At the point of the orbit closest to the sun ( perihelion ), which the comet traversed on June 16, 1860, it was located somewhat within the orbit of Mercury at about 43.8 million km from the sun . On June 8th it had already passed Mercury at a distance of only 16.6 million km and on July 7th it also passed Venus relatively close at a distance of only 31.2 million km. On July 11th, it came closest to Earth at about 0.46 AU / 68.4 million km, and on July 19, the comet passed Mars 115.2 million km away .
When the comet appeared in 1860, the eccentricity of its orbit was increased by about 0.0001 due to the gravitational pull of the planets. Due to the uncertain initial data, however, it is not possible to deduce with certainty on which orbit the comet is now moving. It is unlikely to return to the inner solar system , or will return many tens or hundreds of thousands of years later .
On the basis of a more recent evaluation of the available observation results, Richard L. Branham concluded in a 2007 study that the comet was definitely hyperbolic .
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ GW Kronk: Cometography - A Catalog of Comets, Volume 2. 1800-1899 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2003, ISBN 0-521-58505-8 , pp. 284-288.
- ^ John E. Bortle: International Comet Quarterly - The Bright-Comet Chronicles. Retrieved July 27, 2015 .
- ↑ C / 1860 M1 (Great Comet) in the Small-Body Database of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (English).
- ↑ SOLEX 11.0 A. Vitagliano. Archived from the original on September 18, 2015 ; accessed on May 2, 2014 .
- ^ RL Branham, Jr .: Orbit of comet C / 1860 M1 (Great Comet of 1860). In: Astronomical News. 328, No. 2, 2007, pp. 137-141, doi: 10.1002 / asna.200510665 .