Candy's Comet, also known as C/1960 Y1 by its modern nomenclature, is a Halley-type comet with a 58-year retrograde orbit around the Sun. It is the first comet to have its orbit calculated by its own discoverer.[6]
.jpg) Comet Candy photographed from the US Naval Observatory on 13 January 1961 | |
| Discovery[1][2] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Michael P. Candy |
| Discovery date | 26 December 1960 |
| Designations | |
| 1960n[3] 1961 II | |
| Orbital characteristics[4] | |
| Epoch | 9 January 1961 (JD 2437308.5) |
| Observation arc | 8 days |
| Earliest precovery date | 17 December 1960 |
| Number of observations | 8 |
| Aphelion | 29.004 AU |
| Perihelion | 0.9303 AU |
| Semi-major axis | 15.025 AU |
| Eccentricity | 0.93034 |
| Orbital period | 58.243 years |
| Inclination | 151.175° |
| 177.293° | |
| Argument of periapsis | 138.765° |
| Last perihelion | 8 February 1961 |
| TJupiter | –0.746 |
| Earth MOID | 0.1522 AU |
| Jupiter MOID | 0.1628 AU |
| Physical characteristics[4][5] | |
| Comet total magnitude (M1) | 7.9 |
| Comet nuclear magnitude (M2) | 16.5 |
| 8.0 (1961 apparition) | |
Discovery and observations
editThe comet was first spotted in three prediscovery images taken from the Sonneberg Observatory on December 17,[5] however it wasn't officially discovered until Michael Philip Candy spotted it when he was testing an eyepiece of his 5 in (13 cm) comet seeker on December 26.[2] At the time of discovery, it was a magnitude 8.0 object about 3 degrees southeast of the star, Kappa Cephei. The subsequent two nights were clear, which helped Candy and G. E. Taylor to calculate its orbit and ephemeris right away.[2] Precovery ephemerides of the comet showed that it should be only 5 degrees from Comet Borrelly on October 1960.
The comet moved quickly southwards and faded while approaching perihelion.[7] Observations from 13 January 1961 show a very sharp nuclear condensation of magnitude 15.0.[2] Throughout January, the comet did not produce a discernible tail, however photometric analysis show the comet emitting an intense far-red emission of activity.[8]
Despite having a short observation arc of only 8 days,[4] Candy's calculations reveal the comet as a Halley-type periodic comet with an orbit lasting 58 years. The very small minimum orbit intersection distance with Earth of 0.152 AU (22.7 million km) has led JPL to classify it as a near-Earth comet, although orbital simulations conducted by CNEOS do not show any close approaches to Earth.[4][9]
References
edit- ^ K. A. Thernöe (31 December 1960). "Comet Candy (1960n)". Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams. 1747.
- ^ a b c d E. Roemer (1961). "COMET NOTES". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 73 (431): 170–174. Bibcode:1961PASP...73..170R. doi:10.1086/127649. ISSN 1538-3873.
- ^ "Comet Names and Designations". International Comet Quarterly. Retrieved 25 November 2024.
- ^ a b c d "C/1960 Y1 (Candy) – JPL Small-Body Database Lookup". ssd.jpl.nasa.gov. Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 25 November 2024.
- ^ a b G. W. Kronk (1999). Cometography: A Catalog of Comets. Vol. 5: 1960–1982. Cambridge University Press. pp. 28–30. ISBN 978-0-521-87226-3.
- ^ "Candy, Michael Philip (1928–1994)". Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation. Retrieved 25 November 2024.
- ^ "History of the BAA Comet Section". British Astronomical Association. Retrieved 26 November 2024.
- ^ F. H. Flynn (1961). "Intense far-red emission from Comet Candy (1960n)". The Observatory. 81: 247–248. Bibcode:1961Obs....81..247F.
- ^ "Comet C/1960 Y1 (Candy)". www.spacereference.org. Retrieved 26 November 2024.
