C/1922 U1

Solar System
Dynamics &
Planetology
Group

C/1922 U1 Baade

General description

Comet C/1922 U1 was discovered on 19 October 1922, that is seven days before its perihelion passage, and was last seen on 28 January 1924 [Kronk, Cometography: Volume 3].

This comet made its closest approach to the Earth on 5 October 1922 (1.88 au), that is two weeks before its discovery.

Solution given below is based on data span over 1.28 yr in a range of heliocentric distances from 2.260 au through perihelion (2.259 au) to 5.223 au.

Comet suffered a 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).

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 C1922U1A5-001

Comet C/1922 U1 Baade

number of observations	482
number of residuals	826
data interval	1922 Oct. 19 — 1924 Jan. 28
rms [arcsec]	1.82
orbit quality class	1b

Osculating orbital elements (heliocentric; ecliptic J2000.0)

Epoch (TT)	19221102.0	= JD 2423360.5
time of perihelion passage (TT)	19221026.532142	± 0.001333
perihelion distance	2.25878685	± 0.00000759
eccentricity	1.00079818	± 0.00001927
argument of perihelion [deg]	118.298884	± 0.000483
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	221.578280	± 0.000054
inclination [deg]	51.456548	± 0.000036
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	-353.37	± 8.53

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/1922 U1. 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)	16220607
time of perihelion passage (TT)	19221025.586946	± 0.001413
perihelion distance	2.25655127	± 0.00000784
eccentricity	0.99999470	± 0.00001922
argument of perihelion [deg]	118.331242	± 0.000480
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	221.632968	± 0.000056
inclination [deg]	51.422827	± 0.000036
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	2.35	± 8.52

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/1922 U1. 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)	22170320
time of perihelion passage (TT)	19221026.356621	± 0.001274
perihelion distance	2.26579397	± 0.00000754
eccentricity	1.00122836	± 0.00001929
argument of perihelion [deg]	118.400924	± 0.000480
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	221.526423	± 0.000054
inclination [deg]	51.410666	± 0.000036
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	-542.13	± 8.51