C/1960 Y1 (Candy)

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C/1960 Y1 (Candy)
C1960 Y1 (Candy).jpg
Comet Candy photographed from the US Naval Observatory on 13 January 1961
Discovery [1] [2]
Discovered by Michael P. Candy
Discovery date26 December 1960
Designations
1960n [3]
1961 II
Orbital characteristics [4] [5]
Epoch 9 January 1961 (JD 2437308.5)
Observation arc 8 days
Earliest precovery date17 December 1960
Number of
observations		8
Aphelion 29.004 AU
Perihelion 0.9899 AU
Semi-major axis 15.025 AU
Eccentricity 0.93034
Orbital period 932 years
(inbound)
1,032 years
(outbound)
Inclination 151.175°
177.293°
Argument of
periapsis 		138.765°
Last perihelion8 February 1961
TJupiter –0.746
Earth MOID 0.1522 AU
Jupiter MOID 0.1628 AU
Physical characteristics [4] [6]
Comet total
magnitude (M1)		7.9
Comet nuclear
magnitude (M2)		16.5
8.0
(1961 apparition)

Candy's Comet, also known as C/1960 Y1 by its modern nomenclature, is a non-periodic comet in retrograde orbit around the Sun. It is the first comet to have its orbit calculated by its own discoverer. [7]

Contents

Discovery and observations

The comet was first imaged unnoticed in three prediscovery images taken from the Sonneberg Observatory on December 17, [6] however it wasn't 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 made its closest approach to Earth of 26 December 1960, the day it was discovered, at a distance of 0.645 AU. [6] The comet moved quickly southwards and faded while approaching perihelion. [8] 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. [9] A faint tail about 15–20 arcminutes long was observed in January and February. The comet throughout February was a 9th magnitude object. The comet was last detected on 14 May 1961. [6]

Orbit

An orbit calculated based on a short observation arc of only 8 days, [4] indicated 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] [10] An orbit calculated by Brian G. Marsden, Zdenek Sekanina, and E. Everhart from positions obtained from 30 December 1960 to 14 May 1961 indicates that eccentricity of the comet is 0.9899, that corresponds to an orbital period of 932 years inbound and 1,057 years outbound. [5]

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References

  1. ↑ K. A. Thernöe (31 December 1960). "Comet Candy (1960n)". Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams. 1747.
  2. 1 2 3 4 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.
  3. ↑ "Comet Names and Designations". International Comet Quarterly. Retrieved 25 November 2024.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "C/1960 Y1 (Candy) – JPL Small-Body Database Lookup". ssd.jpl.nasa.gov. Jet Propulsion Laboratory . Retrieved 25 November 2024.
  5. 1 2 B. G. Marsden; Z. Sekanina; E. Everhart (1978). "New osculating orbits for 110 comets and analysis of original orbits for 200 comets". The Astronomical Journal. 83: 64–71. Bibcode:1978AJ.....83...64M. doi: 10.1086/112177 .
  6. 1 2 3 4 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.
  7. ↑ "Candy, Michael Philip (1928–1994)". Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation. Retrieved 25 November 2024.
  8. ↑ "History of the BAA Comet Section". British Astronomical Association . Retrieved 26 November 2024.
  9. ↑ F. H. Flynn (1961). "Intense far-red emission from Comet Candy (1960n)". The Observatory. 81: 247–248. Bibcode:1961Obs....81..247F.
  10. ↑ "Comet C/1960 Y1 (Candy)". www.spacereference.org. Retrieved 26 November 2024.
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