C/1904 Y1

Solar System
Dynamics &
Planetology
Group

C/1904 Y1 Giacobini

General description

Comet C/1904 Y1 was discovered on 18 December 1904, one and a half of month after perihelion passage, and was last seen on 1 June 1905 [Kronk, Cometography: Volume 3].

This comet made its closest approach to the Earth on 31 May 1904 (1.94 au), that is more than 6.5 months before its discovery. During the observed period it was closest to the Earth on 19 January (2.21 au) that is one month after discovery.

Solution given below is based on data span over 0.370 yr in a narrow range of heliocentric distances from 1.96 au through perihelion (1.88 au) to 2.86 au.

Comet suffered small planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system that led to a more tight future orbit (see future barycentric orbit given below)

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 C1904Y1A5-001

Comet C/1904 Y1 Giacobini

number of observations	164
number of residuals	302
data interval	1904 Dec. 18 — 1905 May 2
rms [arcsec]	2.87
orbit quality class	2b

Osculating orbital elements (heliocentric; ecliptic J2000.0)

Epoch (TT)	19041116.0	= JD 2416800.5
time of perihelion passage (TT)	19041103.774111	± 0.013312
perihelion distance	1.88176420	± 0.00010009
eccentricity	1.00034373	± 0.00022266
argument of perihelion [deg]	40.723034	± 0.006760
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	219.786197	± 0.000583
inclination [deg]	99.600058	± 0.000577
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	-182.66	± 118.32

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/1904 Y1. 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)	16031204
time of perihelion passage (TT)	19041103.420926	± 0.013760
perihelion distance	1.88656503	± 0.00009819
eccentricity	0.99980792	± 0.00022134
argument of perihelion [deg]	40.672000	± 0.006737
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	219.740942	± 0.000570
inclination [deg]	99.546209	± 0.000554
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	101.81	± 117.33

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/1904 Y1. 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)	22080725
time of perihelion passage (TT)	19041104.322846	± 0.013289
perihelion distance	1.88304686	± 0.00010131
eccentricity	0.99934541	± 0.00022099
argument of perihelion [deg]	40.729565	± 0.006728
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	219.768501	± 0.000580
inclination [deg]	99.640020	± 0.000593
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	347.62	± 117.38