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Comet Machholz
Comet Machholz, Astronomical naming conventions#Comets, formally designated C/2004 Q2, is a List of non-periodic comets, long-period comet discovered by Donald Machholz on August 27, 2004. It reached naked eye brightness in January 2005. Unusual for such a relatively bright comet, its perihelion was farther from the Sun than the Earth's orbit. Period Given the orbital eccentricity of this object, different Epoch (astronomy), epochs can generate quite different heliocentric unperturbed Two-body problem, two-body curve fitting, best-fit solutions to the aphelion distance (maximum distance) of this object. For objects at such high eccentricity, the Suns Barycentric coordinates (astronomy), barycentric coordinates are more stable than heliocentric coordinates. Using JPL Horizons On-Line Ephemeris System, JPL Horizons the barycentric orbital elements for epoch 2050 generate a semi-major axis of 537 AU and a period of approximately 12,400 years. There are six other long- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
JPL Horizons On-Line Ephemeris System
JPL Horizons On-Line Ephemeris System provides access to key Solar System data and flexible production of highly accurate ephemerides for Solar System objects. Osculating elements at a given epoch (such as produced by the JPL Small-Body Database) are always an approximation to an object's orbit (i.e. an unperturbed conic orbit or a " two-body" orbit). The real orbit (or the best approximation to such) considers perturbations by all planets, a few of the larger asteroids, a few other usually small physical forces, and requires numerical integration. Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) ephemerides do not use things such as periods, eccentricities, etc. Instead, JPL integrates the equations of motion in Cartesian coordinates (x,y,z), and adjusts the initial conditions in order to fit modern, highly accurate measurements of planetary positions. Since August 2013, Horizons has been using ephemeris DE431. During the week of 12 April 2021, the Horizons ephemeris system was updated to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barycenter
In astronomy, the barycenter (or barycentre; ) is the center of mass of two or more bodies that orbit one another and is the point about which the bodies orbit. A barycenter is a dynamical point, not a physical object. It is an important concept in fields such as astronomy and astrophysics. The distance from a body's center of mass to the barycenter can be calculated as a two-body problem. If one of the two orbiting bodies is much more massive than the other and the bodies are relatively close to one another, the barycenter will typically be located within the more massive object. In this case, rather than the two bodies appearing to orbit a point between them, the less massive body will appear to orbit about the more massive body, while the more massive body might be observed to wobble slightly. This is the case for the Earth–Moon system, whose barycenter is located on average from Earth's center, which is 75% of Earth's radius of . When the two bodies are of similar mass ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
141P/Machholz
Comet 141P/Machholz or 141P/Machholz 2 is a periodic Jupiter family comet with an orbital period of 5.3 years. It was discovered by Donald Machholz on 13 August 1994. A few days after the discovery a number of condensations were found near the main component of the comet, indicating that the comet had fragmented between 1987 and 1989, during its previous perihelion. The comet was discovered visually on 13 August 1994 by Donald Machholz, using a 0.25m reflector telescope. The comet then had an estimated apparent magnitude of 10. On 18 August 1994, Michael Jäger reported that a fragment was located 48 arcminutes northeast of the comet. Three more fragments were then found. The fragments were given the letters A to E, with A being the main component. Component D was found to be split in two on 5 October 1994, with the two components being 7 arcseconds apart. The fragments formed two groups; And B formed the southern group and C, D, and E formed the north group. A dust trail co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
96P/Machholz
Comet 96P/Machholz or 96P/Machholz 1 is a Short-period comet, short-period sungrazing comet discovered on May 12, 1986, by Amateur astronomy, amateur astronomer Donald Machholz on Loma Prieta peak, in central California using binoculars. On June 6, 1986, 96P/Machholz passed from the Earth. 96P/Machholz last came to perihelion on October 27, 2017, and will next come to perihelion on January 31, 2023. The comet has an estimated diameter of around . 96P/Machholz is unusual among comets in several respects. Other than small SOHO comets, its highly Orbital eccentricity, eccentric 5.29 year orbit has the smallest perihelion distance known among numbered/regular short-period comets, bringing it considerably closer to the Sun than the orbit of Mercury (planet), Mercury. It is also the only known short-period comet with both high orbital inclination and high eccentricity. In 2007, 96P/Machholz was found to be both carbon-depleted and cyanogen-depleted, a chemical composition nearly uniqu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
