C/1861 G1 (Thatcher)
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | A. E. Thatcher |
| Discovery date | 5 April 1861 |
| Designations | |
| 1861 I | |
| Orbital characteristics[1][2][3] | |
| Epoch | 25 May 1861 (JD 2400920.5) |
| Observation arc | 149 days |
| Number of observations | 187 |
| Orbit type | Long period comet |
| Aphelion | ~112 AU |
| Perihelion | 0.921 AU (1861) 0.917 AU (2283) |
| Semi-major axis | 56.3 AU |
| Eccentricity | 0.983 |
| Orbital period | 422 years |
| Inclination | 79.773° |
| 31.867° | |
| Argument of periapsis | 213.45° |
| Mean anomaly | –0.023° |
| Last perihelion | 3 June 1861 |
| Next perihelion | 2283 |
| TJupiter | 0.304 |
Comet C/1861 G1 (Thatcher) is a long-period comet with roughly a 422-year orbit that is expected to return around 2283. It was discovered by A. E. Thatcher. It is responsible for the April Lyrid meteor shower.[4] Carl Wilhelm Baeker also independently found this comet. The comet passed about 0.335 AU (50.1 million km; 31.1 million mi) from the Earth on 5 May 1861 and last came to perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on 3 June 1861.[3]
C/1861 G1 is listed as a long-period "non-periodic comet" because it has not yet been observed at two perihelion passages. When it is seen to come back around 2283,[2] it should receive the P/ designation.
The comet is the parent body of the April Lyrids meteor shower.[5][6]
See also
- C/1861 J1 (Tebbutt) – Great Comet of 1861
- 153P/Ikeya–Zhang – periodic comet with a 366-year orbit
References
- ^ Horizons output. "Barycentric Osculating Orbital Elements for Thatcher (C/1861 G1) at epoch 1900". Retrieved 26 August 2023. (Solution using the Solar System's barycenter (Sun+Jupiter). Select Ephemeris Type:Elements and Center:@0)
(PR= 1.54E+05 / 365.25 = 422 years) - ^ a b Horizons output. "2283 Perihelion for Comet C/1861 G1 (Thatcher)". Retrieved 7 August 2020. (Observer Location:@sun Perihelion occurs when deldot flips from negative to positive)
- ^ a b "C/1861 G1 (Thatcher) – JPL Small-Body Database Lookup". ssd.jpl.nasa.gov. Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 21 April 2012.
- ^ T. R. Arter; I. P. Williams (1997). "The mean orbit of the April Lyrids" (PDF). Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 289 (3): 721–728. Bibcode:1997MNRAS.289..721A. doi:10.1093/mnras/289.3.721.
- ^ P. Jenniskens (2015). Meteor Showers and their Parent Comets. Cambridge University Press. p. 80. doi:10.1017/CBO9781316257104. ISBN 978-1-316-25710-4.
- ^ M. Hajduková; L. Neslušan (2021). "Modeling the meteoroid streams of comet C/1861 G1 (Thatcher), Lyrids". Planetary and Space Science. 203 105246. Bibcode:2021P&SS..20305246H. doi:10.1016/j.pss.2021.105246.
External links
- C/1861 G1 at the JPL Small-Body Database
- C/1861 G1 at the NASA Science website
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