Solar System
Dynamics &
Planetology
Group 		C/1937 C1 Whipple



General description

data set of C/1937 C1

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Comet C/1937 C1 was discovered on 7 February 1937, about 4.5 months before its perihelion passage, and was last seen on 28 October 1937 [Kronk, Cometography: Volume 4]. Soon after, Whipple found a prediscovery image on plates exposed on 4 February.

This comet made its closest approach to the Earth on 26 June 1937 (1.269 au), that is 6 days after perihelion passage.

Solution given below is based on data span over 0.729 yr in a range of heliocentric distances from 2.44 au through perihelion (1.73 au) to 2.40 au.

Comet suffered large planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system, and it left the planetary zone on a significantly tight orbit with the future semimajor axis of about 720 au (see future barycentric orbits in both solutions given below).

Pure gravitational orbit determined from all available positional measurements (417 observations) give 1b-class orbit similarly as in Minor Planet Center (136 obs. used, the same arc of data; 1B class, see MPC).

It was possible to determine the non-gravitational orbit for C/1937 C1; the derived NG solution give very similar original and future 1/a as in the case of pure gravitational model of motion (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 C1937C1N5-001

SSDP Cometary Note C1937C1A5-001

Comet C/1937 C1 Whipple

number of observations 417
number of residuals 767
data interval 1937 Feb. 4 — 1937 Oct. 28
rms [arcsec] 2.53
orbit quality class 1b

Osculating orbital elements (heliocentric; ecliptic J2000.0)

Epoch (TT) 19370706.0 = JD 2428720.5
time of perihelion passage (TT) 19370620.063073 ± 0.000498
perihelion distance 1.73378655 ± 0.00000401
eccentricity 1.00014288 ± 0.00001263
argument of perihelion [deg] 107.734884 ± 0.000305
longitude of the ascending node [deg] 128.608042 ± 0.000110
inclination [deg] 41.551513 ± 0.000084
inverse semimajor axis [10-6 au-1] -82.41 ± 7.29

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



data set of C/1937 C1

Figure caption: Six 2D-projections of the 6D space of original swarm (5001 VCs) of C/1937 C1. Each density map is given in logarithmic scale presented on the right in the individual panel.
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Original orbital elements (barycentric; at 250 au from the Sun)

Epoch (TT) 16370429
time of perihelion passage (TT) 19370620.221049 ± 0.000506
perihelion distance 1.73545046 ± 0.00000397
eccentricity 0.99989864 ± 0.00001243
argument of perihelion [deg] 107.714649 ± 0.000300
longitude of the ascending node [deg] 128.591694 ± 0.000109
inclination [deg] 41.523168 ± 0.000084
inverse semimajor axis [10-6 au-1] 58.40 ± 7.16

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/1937 C1

Figure caption: Six 2D-projections of the 6D space of future swarm (5001 VCs) of C/1937 C1. 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) 22540505
time of perihelion passage (TT) 19370620.739997 ± 0.000458
perihelion distance 1.71646743 ± 0.00000408
eccentricity 0.99760231 ± 0.00001230
argument of perihelion [deg] 107.371079 ± 0.000299
longitude of the ascending node [deg] 128.427941 ± 0.000104
inclination [deg] 41.478490 ± 0.000083
inverse semimajor axis [10-6 au-1] 1396.88 ± 7.17


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 C1937C1N5-001

number of observations 417
number of residuals 766
data interval 1937 Feb. 4 — 1937 Oct. 28
rms [arcsec] 2.48
orbit quality class 1b

Osculating orbital elements (heliocentric; ecliptic J2000.0)

Epoch (TT) 19370706.0 = JD 2428720.5
time of perihelion passage (TT) 19370620.061675 ± 0.000746
perihelion distance 1.73378562 ± 0.00000410
eccentricity 1.00014873 ± 0.00001307
argument of perihelion [deg] 107.734189 ± 0.000445
longitude of the ascending node [deg] 128.607821 ± 0.000150
inclination [deg] 41.551548 ± 0.000089
inverse semimajor axis [10-6 au-1] -85.79 ± 7.54

Nongravitational parameters [10-8 au/day2] A1 = 2.146 ± 0.968 A2 = -0.002 ± 0.452 A3 = 0.0 (assumed)

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



data set of C/1937 C1

Figure caption: Six 2D-projections of the 6D space of original swarm (5001 VCs) of C/1937 C1. 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) 16370718
time of perihelion passage (TT) 19370620.222929 ± 0.000968
perihelion distance 1.73543405 ± 0.00000793
eccentricity 0.99992220 ± 0.00002491
argument of perihelion [deg] 107.716372 ± 0.000841
longitude of the ascending node [deg] 128.591468 ± 0.000156
inclination [deg] 41.523205 ± 0.000090
inverse semimajor axis [10-6 au-1] 44.83 ± 14.36

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/1937 C1

Figure caption: Six 2D-projections of the 6D space of future swarm (5001 VCs) of C/1937 C1. 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) 22540326
time of perihelion passage (TT) 19370620.736751 ± 0.001577
perihelion distance 1.71645095 ± 0.00001050
eccentricity 0.99762556 ± 0.00002008
argument of perihelion [deg] 107.368860 ± 0.001035
longitude of the ascending node [deg] 128.427721 ± 0.000152
inclination [deg] 41.478508 ± 0.000087
inverse semimajor axis [10-6 au-1] 1383.35 ± 11.70


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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