C/1912 R1

Solar System
Dynamics &
Planetology
Group

C/1912 R1 Gale

General description

Comet C/1912 R1 was discovered on 9 September 1912, about one month before its perihelion passage, and was last seen on 26 May 1913 [Kronk, Cometography: Volume 3].

This comet made its closest approach to the Earth on 14 September 1907 (0.920 au), that is five days after its discovery.

Solution given below is based on data span over 0.704 yr in a range of heliocentric distances from 1.366 au through perihelion (0.716 au) to 1.747 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 hiperbolic 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 C1912R1A5-001

Comet C/1912 R1 Gale

number of observations	935
number of residuals	1670
data interval	1912 Sep. 11 — 1913 May 26
rms [arcsec]	2.48
orbit quality class	1b

Osculating orbital elements (heliocentric; ecliptic J2000.0)

Epoch (TT)	19121005.0	= JD 2419680.5
time of perihelion passage (TT)	19121005.453192	± 0.000053
perihelion distance	0.71607473	± 0.00000084
eccentricity	1.00045667	± 0.00000377
argument of perihelion [deg]	25.621533	± 0.000108
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	298.246936	± 0.000110
inclination [deg]	79.809959	± 0.000085
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	-637.75	± 5.27

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/1912 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)	16140828
time of perihelion passage (TT)	19121004.999276	± 0.000056
perihelion distance	0.71382525	± 0.00000082
eccentricity	0.99997375	± 0.00000376
argument of perihelion [deg]	25.719944	± 0.000110
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	298.264840	± 0.000111
inclination [deg]	79.846805	± 0.000085
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	36.77	± 5.27

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/1912 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)	22060517
time of perihelion passage (TT)	19121005.284559	± 0.000055
perihelion distance	0.71584674	± 0.00000088
eccentricity	1.00026544	± 0.00000377
argument of perihelion [deg]	25.598506	± 0.000110
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	298.263151	± 0.000111
inclination [deg]	79.808281	± 0.000084
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	-370.81	± 5.27