27P/Crommelin
Comet Crommelin photographed by Ferdinand Quénisset on 28 October 1928 | |
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by |
|
| Discovery date | 23 February 1818 |
| Designations | |
| |
| |
| Orbital characteristics[2][3] | |
| Epoch | 18 July 2011 (JD 2455760.5) |
| Observation arc | 193.92 years |
| Number of observations | 497 |
| Aphelion | 17.659 AU |
| Perihelion | 0.748 AU |
| Semi-major axis | 9.204 AU |
| Eccentricity | 0.91874 |
| Orbital period | 27.922 years |
| Inclination | 28.96° |
| 250.64° | |
| Argument of periapsis | 195.98° |
| Mean anomaly | 359.41° |
| Last perihelion | 3 August 2011 |
| Next perihelion | 27 May 2039[1] |
| TJupiter | 1.481 |
| Earth MOID | 0.229 AU |
| Jupiter MOID | 1.009 AU |
| Physical characteristics[2] | |
Mean diameter | < 12±3 km[4][a] |
| Comet total magnitude (M1) | 12.7 |
| Comet nuclear magnitude (M2) | 16.3 |
Comet Crommelin, also known as Comet Pons-Coggia-Winnecke-Forbes, is a periodic comet with an orbital period of almost 28 years. It fits the classical definition of a Halley-type comet with (20 years < period < 200 years). It is named after the British astronomer Andrew C. D. Crommelin who calculated its orbit in 1930. It is one of only five known comets that are not named after their discoverer(s)[b] It next comes to perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) around 27 May 2039 when it will be near a maximum near-perihelion distance from Earth.
Observational history
The first observation was by Jean-Louis Pons (Marseille, France) on February 23, 1818, he followed the comet until February 27 but was prevented further by bad weather. Johann Franz Encke attempted to calculate the orbit but was left with very large errors.
In 1872, John R. Hind produced a rough orbital calculation and observed it was close to that of Comet Biela, based on these observations, Edmund Weiss later speculated it may have been part of Biela's comet.
The next observation was on November 10, 1873, by Jérôme E. Coggia (Marseille, France), and again on November 11 by Friedrich A. T. Winnecke (Strasbourg, France), but it was lost by November 16. Weiss and Hind took up the calculations and tried to match it again with the 1818 appearance.
A third discovery was by Alexander F. I. Forbes (Cape Town, South Africa) on 19 November 1928, and confirmed by Harry E. Wood (Union Observatory, South Africa) on November 21. It was Crommelin who eventually established the orbit and finally linked the 1818 (Pons) and 1873 (Coggia-Winnecke) comets to it (also see Lost comet).
On its latest return, 27P/Crommelin was recovered on May 12, 2011, at apparent magnitude 18.7[5] and peaked at magnitude 10.7 at perihelion on August 3.[6] 27P/Crommelin was last observed in January 2012, and passed about 1.5 AU (220 million km) from Saturn on 11 July 2015.[2]
The next perihelion will be on 27 May 2039.[3][1] Near perihelion the comet will be 0.74 AU from the Sun and 1.73 AU from Earth.[1] This is about as far from Earth as the comet can get during perihelion.
On 22 December 2120, it will pass 0.297 AU (44.4 million km) from Earth.[2]
References
Notes
- ^ Upper limit value of the nucleus diameter derived from observations while the comet was 5.39 AU (806 million km) from the Sun.[4]
- ^ The other four comets not named after their discoverers were: 1P/Halley, 2P/Encke, D/1770 L1 (Lexell) and X/1882 K1 (Tewfik).
Citations
- ^ a b c "Horizons Batch for 27P/Crommelin (90000382) on 2039-May-27" (Perihelion occurs when rdot flips from negative to positive). JPL Horizons. Archived from the original on 12 May 2023. Retrieved 12 May 2023. (JPL#6 Soln.date: 2023-May-12)
- ^ a b c d "JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 27P/Crommelin" (last observation: 2012-01-26). Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 12 May 2023.
- ^ a b "27P/Crommelin Orbit". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 7 February 2017.
- ^ a b J. D. Rosser; J. M. Bauer; A. K. Mainzer; E. Kramer; J. R. Masiero; et al. (2018). "Behavioral Characteristics and CO+CO
2 Production Rates of Halley-type Comets Observed by NEOWISE". The Astronomical Journal. 155 (4): 164–171. arXiv:1802.06943. Bibcode:2018AJ....155..164R. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/aab152. - ^ "MPEC 2011-L11 : OBSERVATIONS AND ORBITS OF COMETS". IAU Minor Planet Center. 2 June 2011. Retrieved 13 June 2011.
- ^ Seiichi Yoshida (10 February 2013). "27P/Crommelin (2011) - Magnitudes Graph". Retrieved 19 March 2016.
External links
- 27P/Crommelin at the JPL Small-Body Database
- 27P/Crommelin at the Minor Planet Center's Database
- 27P at Kronk's Cometography
- 27P at Kazuo Kinoshita's Comets
- 27P at Seiichi Yoshida's Comet Catalog
- 27P at Earthrise Institute
- Lightcurve (Artyom Novichonok)
- 27P as seen by 10" GRAS-04 on 2011-05-30 (60 sec x 8)
- 27P as seen by 20" RCOS on 2011-07-10 Archived 2016-08-05 at the Wayback Machine (30 sec x 12; Joseph Brimacombe)
