C/1906 E1

Solar System
Dynamics &
Planetology
Group

C/1906 E1 Kopff

General description

Comet C/1906 E1 was discovered on 4 March 1906, 4.5 months after perihelion passage, and was last seen on 4 July 1907 [Kronk, Cometography: Volume 3]. Soon the comet was found on a two photographic plates exposed on 15 January 1905 and 10 January 1904 in Konigstuhl Observatory (Heidelberg).

This comet made its closest approach to the Earth on 2 March 1906 (2.60 au), that is two days before its discovery.

Solution given below is based on data span over 3.48 yr in a range of heliocentric distances from 6.53 au through perihelion (3.34 au) to 6.38 au.

Comet suffered moderate planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system that led to escape the comet from the planetary zone on a hyperbolic orbit (see future barycentric orbit given below).

More details in Królikowska et al. 2014

C/1906 E1 belongs to a group of split comets, and it is not included to the sample of distant comets (see Królikowska and Dybczyński 2017).

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 C1906E1A5-001

Comet C/1906 E1 Kopff

number of observations	462
number of residuals	812
data interval	1904 Jan. 10 — 1907 July 4
rms [arcsec]	1.96
orbit quality class	1a

Osculating orbital elements (heliocentric; ecliptic J2000.0)

Epoch (TT)	19051002.0	= JD 2417120.5
time of perihelion passage (TT)	19051018.260509	± 0.001894
perihelion distance	3.33984993	± 0.00001427
eccentricity	1.00154602	± 0.00001830
argument of perihelion [deg]	158.599798	± 0.000814
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	343.621657	± 0.000729
inclination [deg]	4.282129	± 0.000190
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	-462.90	± 5.48

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/1906 E1. 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)	16030518
time of perihelion passage (TT)	19051017.833416	± 0.001867
perihelion distance	3.33691190	± 0.00001423
eccentricity	0.99994209	± 0.00001852
argument of perihelion [deg]	158.570127	± 0.000819
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	343.735716	± 0.000732
inclination [deg]	4.287970	± 0.000190
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	17.35	± 5.55

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/1906 E1. 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)	22020319
time of perihelion passage (TT)	19051017.757182	± 0.001897
perihelion distance	3.34445809	± 0.00001428
eccentricity	1.00177097	± 0.00001853
argument of perihelion [deg]	158.629204	± 0.000820
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	343.663142	± 0.000733
inclination [deg]	4.280140	± 0.000190
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	-529.52	± 5.54