C/1946 P1

Solar System
Dynamics &
Planetology
Group

C/1946 P1 Jones

General description

Comet C/1946 P1 was discovered on 6 August 1946, that is 3.7 months before perihelion passage, and was last seen on 23 November 1948 [Kronk, Cometography: Volume 4].

This comet made its closest approach to the Earth on 4 October 1946 (1.913 au), that is about three weeks before its perihelion passage.

Solution given below is based on data span over 2.279 yr in a range of heliocentric distances from 1.625 au through perihelion (1.136 au) to 8.170 au.

Comet suffered very slight planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system, and in the next passage through the perihelion it will enter the planet zone as Oort spike comet (see future barycentric orbits 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 C1946P1A5-001

Comet C/1946 P1 Jones

number of observations	144
number of residuals	257
data interval	1946 Aug. 13 — 1948 Nov. 23
rms [arcsec]	0.99
orbit quality class	1a

Osculating orbital elements (heliocentric; ecliptic J2000.0)

Epoch (TT)	19461027.0	= JD 2432120.5
time of perihelion passage (TT)	19461026.778759	± 0.000498
perihelion distance	1.13610604	± 0.00000296
eccentricity	1.00076873	± 0.00000562
argument of perihelion [deg]	320.412716	± 0.000277
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	238.335364	± 0.000188
inclination [deg]	56.964608	± 0.000062
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	-676.64	± 4.94

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/1946 P1. 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)	16471103
time of perihelion passage (TT)	19461026.493829	± 0.000520
perihelion distance	1.12948754	± 0.00000300
eccentricity	0.99994255	± 0.00000573
argument of perihelion [deg]	320.574302	± 0.000286
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	238.295327	± 0.000193
inclination [deg]	57.042068	± 0.000064
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	50.86	± 5.08

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/1946 P1. 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)	22450621
time of perihelion passage (TT)	19461026.922779	± 0.000510
perihelion distance	1.13244087	± 0.00000300
eccentricity	0.99997447	± 0.00000575
argument of perihelion [deg]	320.262683	± 0.000284
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	238.420478	± 0.000193
inclination [deg]	56.958209	± 0.000063
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	22.55	± 5.08