Solar System
Dynamics &
Planetology
Group 		C/1916 G1 Wolf



General description

data set of C/1916 G1

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Comet C/1916 G1 was discovered on 4 April 1916, about 14.5 months before its perihelion passage, and was last seen on 29 January 1918 [Kronk, Cometography: Volume 3].

This comet made its closest approach to the Earth on 21 August 1917 (0.988 au), that is about two months after its perihelion passage.

Solution given below is based on data span over 1.81 yr in a range of heliocentric distances from 5.16 au through perihelion (1.69 au) to 3.25 au.

Comet suffered moderate planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system that led to a more tight future orbit with semimajor axis of about 1300 au (see future barycentric orbits given below for both solutions: pure gravitational and non-gravitational).

Pure gravitational orbit determined from all available positional measurements (469 observations) give 1a-class orbit, orbit given in Minor Planet Center is 2A class (186 obs. used, almost the same arc of data; see MPC).

It was possible to determine the non-gravitational orbit for C/1916 G1, the RMS for NG orbit decreases from 1.97 arcsec (pure gravitational orbit) to 1.84 arcsec (see 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.




Non–gravitational orbit — see below SSDP Cometary Note C1916G1N5-001

SSDP Cometary Note C1916G1A6-001

Comet C/1916 G1 Wolf

number of observations 471
number of residuals 823
data interval 1916 Apr. 7 — 1918 Nov. 1
rms [arcsec] 1.97
orbit quality class 1a

Osculating orbital elements (heliocentric; ecliptic J2000.0)

Epoch (TT) 19170621.0 = JD 2421400.5
time of perihelion passage (TT) 19170617.074175 ± 0.000244
perihelion distance 1.68644587 ± 0.00000103
eccentricity 0.99937443 ± 0.00000541
argument of perihelion [deg] 120.621838 ± 0.000141
longitude of the ascending node [deg] 184.457271 ± 0.000054
inclination [deg] 25.659093 ± 0.000045
inverse semimajor axis [10-6 au-1] 370.94 ± 3.21

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



data set of C/1916 G1

Figure caption: Six 2D-projections of the 6D space of original swarm (5001 VCs) of C/1916 G1. 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) 16170921
time of perihelion passage (TT) 19170617.357661 ± 0.000249
perihelion distance 1.69219889 ± 0.00000105
eccentricity 0.99994022 ± 0.00000541
argument of perihelion [deg] 120.502725 ± 0.000140
longitude of the ascending node [deg] 184.485105 ± 0.000054
inclination [deg] 25.605811 ± 0.000045
inverse semimajor axis [10-6 au-1] 35.33 ± 3.20

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.



data set of C/1916 G1

Figure caption: Six 2D-projections of the 6D space of future swarm (5001 VCs) of C/1916 G1. 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) 22260313
time of perihelion passage (TT) 19170618.004132 ± 0.000249
perihelion distance 1.68486080 ± 0.00000104
eccentricity 0.99868344 ± 0.00000539
argument of perihelion [deg] 120.734220 ± 0.000142
longitude of the ascending node [deg] 184.255647 ± 0.000054
inclination [deg] 25.636610 ± 0.000045
inverse semimajor axis [10-6 au-1] 781.41 ± 3.20


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



Non–gravitational orbit


SSDP Cometary Note C1916G1N5-001

number of observations 471
number of residuals 817
data interval 1916 Apr. 7 — 1918 Nov. 1
rms [arcsec] 1.84
orbit quality class 1b

Osculating orbital elements (heliocentric; ecliptic J2000.0)

Epoch (TT) 19170621.0 = JD 2421400.5
time of perihelion passage (TT) 19170617.074377 ± 0.000274
perihelion distance 1.68642132 ± 0.00000382
eccentricity 0.99932117 ± 0.00000954
argument of perihelion [deg] 120.621627 ± 0.000182
longitude of the ascending node [deg] 184.457166 ± 0.000054
inclination [deg] 25.658821 ± 0.000063
inverse semimajor axis [10-6 au-1] 402.53 ± 5.66

Nongravitational parameters [10-8 au/day2] A1 = 2.502 ± 0.442 A2 = 0.708 ± 0.363 A3 = -0.2692 ± 0.0699

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



data set of C/1916 G1

Figure caption: Six 2D-projections of the 6D space of original swarm (5001 VCs) of C/1916 G1. 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) 16170414
time of perihelion passage (TT) 19170617.362353 ± 0.001103
perihelion distance 1.69214922 ± 0.00000924
eccentricity 0.99988224 ± 0.00001603
argument of perihelion [deg] 120.505372 ± 0.000640
longitude of the ascending node [deg] 184.485407 ± 0.000122
inclination [deg] 25.605536 ± 0.000064
inverse semimajor axis [10-6 au-1] 69.59 ± 9.48

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.



data set of C/1916 G1

Figure caption: Six 2D-projections of the 6D space of future swarm (5001 VCs) of C/1916 G1. 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) 22260313
time of perihelion passage (TT) 19170618.002781 ± 0.000285
perihelion distance 1.68482103 ± 0.00000571
eccentricity 0.99867953 ± 0.00001482
argument of perihelion [deg] 120.732445 ± 0.000275
longitude of the ascending node [deg] 184.255375 ± 0.000066
inclination [deg] 25.636480 ± 0.000079
inverse semimajor axis [10-6 au-1] 783.75 ± 8.79


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





Solar System Dynamics & Planetology Group, 2014. All rights reserved

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