C/1902 R1

Solar System
Dynamics &
Planetology
Group

C/1902 R1 Perrine

General description

Comet C/1902 R1 was discovered on 1 September 1902, about three months before perihelion passage, and was last seen on 28 April 1903 [Kronk, Cometography: Volume 3], however the last good quality measurements of its position was made on 31 March.

This comet made its closest approach to the Earth on 7 October 1902 (0.371 au), that is about five weeks after its discovery. At this time it was naked eye object.

Solution given below is based on data span over 0.578 yr in a range of heliocentric distances from 1.79 au through perihelion (0.401 au) to 2.44 au.

Comet suffered moderate planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system that caused a more tight future orbit with semimajor axis of about 1150 au.

This comet was in the original sample of 19 comets used by Oort for his hypothesis on LPCs.

More details in Królikowska et al. 2014

Figure caption: Time distribution of positional observations with corresponding heliocentric (red curve) and geocentric (green curve) distance at which they were taken. The horizontal dotted line shows the perihelion distance for a given comet whereas vertical dotted line — the moment of perihelion passage.

SSDP Cometary Note C1902R1A5-001

Comet C/1902 R1 Perrine

number of observations	1491
number of residuals	2501
data interval	1902 Sep. 1 — 1903 Mar. 31
rms [arcsec]	2.28
orbit quality class	1b

Osculating orbital elements (heliocentric; ecliptic J2000.0)

Epoch (TT)	19021127.0	= JD 2416080.5
time of perihelion passage (TT)	19021124.356684	± 0.000025
perihelion distance	0.40107241	± 0.00000033
eccentricity	0.99996675	± 0.00000069
argument of perihelion [deg]	152.983569	± 0.000085
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	50.740193	± 0.000087
inclination [deg]	156.354721	± 0.000036
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	82.90	± 1.71

Note: Epoch is given in a format: yyyymmdd.d, time of perihelion passage in a format of yyyymmdd.dddddd.

Figure caption: Six 2D-projections of the 6D space of original swarm (5001 VCs) of C/1902 R1. Each density map is given in logarithmic scale presented on the right in the individual panel.
The same figure in the new window

Original orbital elements (barycentric; at 250 au from the Sun)

Epoch (TT)	16050616
time of perihelion passage (TT)	19021124.748046	± 0.000042
perihelion distance	0.39752997	± 0.00000028
eccentricity	0.99998766	± 0.00000067
argument of perihelion [deg]	152.968369	± 0.000084
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	50.636389	± 0.000087
inclination [deg]	156.486711	± 0.000040
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	31.04	± 1.71

Note: Values of uncertainties of original/future orbital elements were derived using a swarm of 5001 osculating orbits of VCs (including the nominal osculating orbit given above) for original/future orbital evolution calclulations and then by fitting the distribution of a given orbital element of original/future swarm of VCs to Gaussian distribution.

Original barycentric positions and velocities of 5001 VCs at 250 au from the Sun are given here (data format), i.e. before entering the planetary zone.

Figure caption: Six 2D-projections of the 6D space of future swarm (5001 VCs) of C/1902 R1. Each density map is given in logarithmic scale presented on the right in the individual panel.
The same figure in the new window

Future orbital elements (barycentric; at 250 au from the Sun)

Epoch (TT)	22100426
time of perihelion passage (TT)	19021124.008464	± 0.000019
perihelion distance	0.40184116	± 0.00000033
eccentricity	0.99965002	± 0.00000069
argument of perihelion [deg]	152.815403	± 0.000086
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	50.627736	± 0.000088
inclination [deg]	156.403506	± 0.000037
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	870.94	± 1.71