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Daniel Du Toit
Daniel Stefanus du Toit (1917–1981) was a South African astronomer. Daniel Stefanus du Toit was born in Springfontein, in the Free State, South Africa, on 15 December 1917, he was educated at the Sentraal High school Hoërskool Sentraal in Bloemfontein, after school he entered employment at the Boyden Observatory (Harvard College Observatory, Boyden station) at Maselspoort in 1936, and became the chief assistant to the director dr John S. Paraskevopoulos. He discovered and co-discovered several comets, including 57P/du Toit–Neujmin–Delporte, 66P/du Toit, 79P/du Toit–Hartley. He worked at Boyden Observatory Maselspoort, Free State, South Africa (then administered by Harvard College Observatory, Boyden Station). All comets were discovered whilst examining photographic plates taken by the Bache or Metcalf telescopes. It was their job to check the photographic plates taken on behalf of Harlow Shapley, then Director at Harvard. The exposures were generally 45 minutes on Cra ...
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Bloemfontein
Bloemfontein, ( ; , "fountain of flowers") also known as Bloem, is one of South Africa's three capital cities and the capital of the Free State (province), Free State province. It serves as the country's judicial capital, along with legislative capital Cape Town and Administration (government), administrative capital Pretoria. Bloemfontein is the seventh-largest city in South Africa. Situated at an elevation of above sea level, the city is home to approximately 520,000 residents and forms part of the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality which has a population of 747,431. It was one of the host cities for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The city of Bloemfontein hosts the Supreme Court of Appeal (South Africa), Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa, the Franklin Game Reserve, :af:Naval Hill, Naval Hill, the Maselspoort, Maselspoort Resort and the :af:Sand du Plessis-teaterkompleks, Sand du Plessis Theatre. The city hosts numerous museums, including the National Women's Monument, th ...
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C/1959 O1
This is a list of parabolic and hyperbolic comets in the Solar System. Many of these comets may come from the Oort cloud, or perhaps even have interstellar origin. The Oort Cloud is not gravitationally attracted enough to the Sun to form into a fairly thin disk, like the inner Solar System. Thus, comets originating from the Oort Cloud can come from roughly any orientation (inclination to the ecliptic), and many even have a retrograde orbit. By definition, a hyperbolic orbit means that the comet will only travel through the Solar System once, with the Sun acting as a gravitational slingshot, sending the comet hurtling out of the Solar System entirely unless its eccentricity is otherwise changed. Comets orbiting in this way still originate from the Solar System, however. Typically comets in the Oort Cloud are thought to have roughly circular orbits around the Sun, but their orbital velocity is so slow that they may easily be perturbed by passing stars and the galactic tide. ...
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