C / 390 Q1
| C / 390 Q1 [i] | |
|---|---|
| Properties of the orbit ( animation ) | |
| Orbit type | parabolic |
| Numerical eccentricity | 1.0 |
| Perihelion | 0.92 ± 0.1 AU |
| Inclination of the orbit plane | 36 ± 20 ° |
| Perihelion | September 5, 390 ± 5 days |
| Orbital velocity in the perihelion | 44 ± 3 km / s |
| history | |
| Explorer | |
| Date of discovery | 22nd August 390 |
| Older name | 390 |
| Source: Unless otherwise stated, the data comes from JPL Small-Body Database Browser . Please also note the note on comet articles . | |
C / 390 Q1 is a comet that could be seen with the naked eye in 390 . It is counted among the " Great Comets " due to its extraordinary brightness .
Discovery and observation
The exact date of discovery of this comet is not known with certainty, but although there are some discrepancies about it in the 7th century Chinese Chronicle Chén Shū , the comet was probably discovered as a "sparkling star" in the morning sky of August 22, 390 (local time) . For this date it was also best to determine orbital elements that match the observations . The comet was probably discovered in Korea at the same time , but the 18th century text in Chungbo Munhon Pigo is less clear as to the date and only reports a "twinkling star" that appeared sometime between late July and late August .
According to Chinese information, the comet was in the constellation Gemini at the time of its discovery and then migrated to the Great Bear . On September 8th it was standing in the Big Dipper , its color was white and the tail was about 100 degrees long. In China, the comet was last seen on September 17th when it entered the range of the circumpolar stars.
C / 390 Q1 was probably also observed in Europe , but there are only imprecise times. The Eastern Roman historian Philostorgios wrote about it in such detail in his Ekklesiastike Historia in 425 that it was very likely that it was the same comet that the Chinese reported. He described it as "a new and strange star ... that heralded the arrival of very great catastrophes in the world". It was first seen "at midnight in the east" and was "large and bright and of a luminosity hardly less than the morning star ". The comet is said to have assumed a diffuse appearance and it is said to have looked as if “stars clustered around it from all sides like a swarm of bees”. After that, "the light of all these stars united" and the comet would have appeared like a "great and terrible" sword with a double-edged blade, with the star that appeared first standing in the handle of the sword and a ray of light shooting through the blade like a "root" . The comet then slowly migrated north, making a slight arc to the left. After 40 days he disappeared again in the constellation Great Bear.
The Eastern Roman historian Marcellinus Comes reported in his Chronicon from the 6th century by the appearance of a comet both in 389 and in 390, but probably both reports refer to the same event:
"(389) II. Timasii et Promoti. […] Stella a septentrione gallicinio surgens et in modum luciferi ardens potius quam splendens apparuit, vicensimo sexto die esse desiit. [...]
(390) III. Valentiniani Aug. IIII et Neoterii. Signum in caelo quasi columna pendens ardensque per dies triginta apparuit. "
“[Indication] II. [Consulate of] Timasius and Promotus. […] A star rose in the north at the hour of the cock's crow, like the morning star it appeared more burning than shining, and disappeared again after 26 days. […]
[Indiction] III. [Consulate of] Valentinian Aug. IV and Neoterius. A sign in the sky like a hanging and burning pillar appeared for 30 days. "
There are other reports of European observations that give either the year 389 or 390, but otherwise no details, only the text Fasti Vindobonenses , in the original from the 6th century, additionally mentions a period of the appearance of 30 days.
The comet reached a magnitude of –1 mag around August 18 .
Orbit
Hasegawa was able to determine only a very uncertain parabolic orbit for the comet from 3 observations over 26 days , which is inclined by around 36 ° to the ecliptic . At the point of the orbit closest to the sun ( perihelion ), which the comet passed through around September 5, 390, it was located at a distance of about 138 million km from the sun just inside the orbit of the earth . By August 18, it could have come close to Earth to around 0.10 AU / 15 million km, which would make it one of the 32 closest comets to Earth in historical times. The motion of the comet was such that it migrated with the earth over a longer period of a few weeks and not only flew by quickly like most other comets, which come very close to the earth. This close proximity to the earth could on the one hand have been the reason for its observed brightness, on the other hand, as the contemporary reports suggest, it could also have experienced a strong burst of brightness.
Due to the uncertain initial data, no statement can be made as to whether and, if so, when the comet could return to the inner solar system .
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ A b I. Hasegawa: Orbits of Ancient and Medieval Comets. In: Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan. Vol. 31, 1979, pp. 257-270 ( bibcode : 1979PASJ ... 31..257H ).
- ^ J. Williams: Observations of Comets, from BC 611 to AD 1640. Strangeways and Walden, London 1871, pp. 29-30 ( PDF, 20.93 MB ).
- ^ AG Pingré: Cométographie ou Traité historique et théorique des comètes. Tome I. Imprimerie Royale, Paris 1783, pp. 303–305, 598 ( PDF; 56.49 MB , Pingré incorrectly gives the comet's release date as 389, in the supplement he mentions another comet for the year 390).
- ^ Marcellinus VC Comes: Chronicon (518). In: Th. Mommsen (Ed.): Chronica Minora Saec. IV. V. VI. VII. Vol. II. Weidmann, Berlin 1894, p. 62 ( online ).
- ^ Gary W. Kronk : Cometography - A Catalog of Comets, Volume 1. Ancient - 1799. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1999, ISBN 978-0-521-58504-0 , pp. 68-70.
- ↑ DK Yeomans: NASA JPL Solar System Dynamics: Great Comets in History. Retrieved June 27, 2016 .
- ↑ C / 390 Q1 in the Small-Body Database of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (English).
- ↑ A. Vitagliano: SOLEX 11.0. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 18, 2015 ; accessed on May 2, 2014 .
- ↑ Historic Comet Close Approaches Prior to 2006. NASA, accessed June 24, 2016 .
- ^ DAJ Seargent: The Greatest Comets in History: Broom Stars and Celestial Scimitars. Springer, New York 2009, ISBN 978-0-387-09512-7 , pp. 78-79.