C/1907 E1

Solar System
Dynamics &
Planetology
Group

C/1907 E1 Giacobini

General description

Comet C/1907 E1 was discovered on 9 March 1907, ten days before its perihelion passage, and was last seen on 26 February 1908 [Kronk, Cometography: Volume 3].

This comet made its closest approach to the Earth on 22 February 1907 (1.33 au), that is about two weeks before its discovery.

Solution given below is based on data span over 0.970 yr in a range of heliocentric distances from 2.055 au through perihelion (2.052 au) to 4.29 au.

Comet suffered rather small planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system, however they led to escape the comet from the planetary zone on a hiperbolic orbit (see future barycentric orbit given below)

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 C1907E1A5-001

Comet C/1907 E1 Giacobini

number of observations	178
number of residuals	296
data interval	1907 Mar. 9 — 1908 Feb. 26
rms [arcsec]	2.56
orbit quality class	2a

Osculating orbital elements (heliocentric; ecliptic J2000.0)

Epoch (TT)	19070309.0	= JD 2417643.5
time of perihelion passage (TT)	19070319.606941	± 0.001690
perihelion distance	2.05167901	± 0.00001611
eccentricity	1.00099244	± 0.00004395
argument of perihelion [deg]	317.118563	± 0.000810
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	98.484125	± 0.000214
inclination [deg]	141.659654	± 0.000193
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	-483.72	± 21.42

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/1907 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)	16061012
time of perihelion passage (TT)	19070320.532327	± 0.001521
perihelion distance	2.05146625	± 0.00001620
eccentricity	0.99993073	± 0.00004423
argument of perihelion [deg]	317.181114	± 0.000820
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	98.439032	± 0.000215
inclination [deg]	141.685157	± 0.000201
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	33.76	± 21.56

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.

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

Epoch (TT)	22040131
time of perihelion passage (TT)	19070320.176742	± 0.001723
perihelion distance	2.04521487	± 0.00001628
eccentricity	1.00057480	± 0.00004408
argument of perihelion [deg]	317.069049	± 0.000814
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	98.573559	± 0.000221
inclination [deg]	141.673192	± 0.000193
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	-281.04	± 21.55