C/1925 W1

Solar System
Dynamics &
Planetology
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C/1925 W1 van Biesbroeck

General description

Comet C/1925 W1 was discovered on 17 November 1925, that is 1.5 month after perihelion passage, and was last seen on 10 June 1926 [Kronk, Cometography: Volume 3].

This comet made its closest approach to the Earth on 29 January 1926 (1.351 au), that is 2.3 months after its discovery.

Solution given below is based on data span over 0.562 yr in a range of heliocentric distances from 1.69 au to 3.48 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).

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 C1925W1A5-001

Comet C/1925 W1 van Biesbroeck

number of observations	342
number of residuals	593
data interval	1925 Nov. 17 — 1926 June 10
rms [arcsec]	1.94
orbit quality class	1b

Osculating orbital elements (heliocentric; ecliptic J2000.0)

Epoch (TT)	19251017.0	= JD 2424440.5
time of perihelion passage (TT)	19251002.973357	± 0.000325
perihelion distance	1.56621518	± 0.00001487
eccentricity	1.00037453	± 0.00001486
argument of perihelion [deg]	106.398480	± 0.000589
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	335.612555	± 0.000042
inclination [deg]	49.329746	± 0.000404
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	-239.13	± 9.49

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/1925 W1. 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)	16260407
time of perihelion passage (TT)	19251002.714744	± 0.000382
perihelion distance	1.56532856	± 0.00001534
eccentricity	0.99995524	± 0.00001506
argument of perihelion [deg]	106.401280	± 0.000599
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	335.706396	± 0.000041
inclination [deg]	49.270625	± 0.000414
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	28.59	± 9.62

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/1925 W1. 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)	22210518
time of perihelion passage (TT)	19251003.313123	± 0.000286
perihelion distance	1.56877876	± 0.00001517
eccentricity	1.00049850	± 0.00001508
argument of perihelion [deg]	106.484194	± 0.000597
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	335.500024	± 0.000042
inclination [deg]	49.276562	± 0.000414
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	-317.76	± 9.61