C/1862 N1 (Schmidt)
Discovery | |
---|---|
Discovered by | Johann Friedrich Julius Schmidt |
Discovery site | Athens Observatory |
Discovery date | 2 July 1862 |
Designations | |
1862 II | |
Orbital characteristics[1] | |
Epoch | 4 July 1862 (JD 2401325.5) |
Observation arc | 29 days |
Number of observations | 72 |
Perihelion | 0.981 AU |
Eccentricity | 1.0 |
Inclination | 172.11° |
328.44° | |
Argument of periapsis | 27.17° |
Last perihelion | 22 June 1862 |
Physical characteristics[2] | |
Comet total magnitude (M1) | 9.4 |
4–5 (1862 apparition) |
C/1862 N1 (Schmidt), sometimes referred to as C/1862 N1 (Schmidt–Temple), is a non-periodic comet discovered by Johann Friedrich Julius Schmidt on 2 July 1862.
Observational history
[edit]The comet was discovered on 2 July 1862 Johann Friedrich Julius Schmidt, then director of the National Observatory of Athens, and a few hours later was discovered by Wilhelm Tempel, at Marseille Observatory. The comet upon discovery was located in the constellation Cassiopeia and Schmidt described the comet as being tailless, with a coma 22 arcminutes across, and visible with the naked eye. Temple estimated its magnitude to be 4–5. Schmidt observed the comet again on July 4 and noted a tail half a degree long.[2]
The comet passed at a distance of 0.0982 astronomical units (14,690,000 km; 9,130,000 mi) from Earth on 4 July, making it the fourth closest known approach of a comet to Earth in the 19th century.[3] Consequently the comet moved away from both the Earth and the Sun, while brightening moonlight hampered observations. The comet was last observed with the naked eye on 7 July. The comet faded rapidly throughout the month and it was last observed on 31 July.[2]
Meteors
[edit]The comet has been tentatively associated with the weak meteor shower ζ Arietids, observed between 13 and 25 August. The minimum orbital intersection distance between the comet and Earth is 0.028 AU.[4][5]
References
[edit]- ^ "C/1862 N1 (Schmidt) – JPL Small-Body Database Lookup". ssd.jpl.nasa.gov. Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 14 January 2025.
- ^ a b c G. W. Kronk (2003). Cometography: A Catalog of Comets. Vol. 2: 1800–1899. Cambridge University Press. pp. 305–307. ISBN 978-0-521-58505-7.
- ^ "NEO Earth Close Approaches". cneos.jpl.nasa.gov. Retrieved 14 January 2025.
- ^ Lindblad, B. A. (1 January 1971). "A computerized stream search among 2401 photographic meteor orbits". Smithsonian Contributions to Astrophysics. 12: 14–24.
- ^ Šegon, D.; Gural, P.; Andreić, Ž.; Skokić, I.; Korlević, K.; Vida, D.; Novoselnik, F. (1 July 2014). "A parent body search across several video meteor data bases". The Meteoroids 2013, Proceedings of the Astronomical Conference held at A.M. University, Poznań, Poland, Aug. 26-30, 2013: 251–262.
External links
[edit]- C/1862 N1 at the JPL Small-Body Database