P/2011 S1 (Gibbs)

For other comets discovered by Alex R. Gibbs, see Comet Gibbs.

P/2011 S1 (Gibbs)

Discovery [1]
Discovered by	Alex R. Gibbs
Discovery site	Mount Lemmon Survey
Discovery date	19 September 2011
Orbital characteristics [2]
Epoch	5 June 2013 (JD 2456448.5)
Observation arc	8.26 years
Earliest precovery date	29 September 2010
Number of observations	148
Aphelion	10.409 AU
Perihelion	6.894 AU
Semi-major axis	8.652 AU
Eccentricity	0.20315
Orbital period	25.448 years
Inclination	2.679°
Longitude of ascending node	218.89°
Argument of periapsis	193.37°
Mean anomaly	342.76°
Last perihelion	24 August 2014
Next perihelion	2 November 2039 [3]
TJupiter	3.124
Earth MOID	5.903 AU
Jupiter MOID	1.885 AU
Physical characteristics [2] [4] [5]
Mean diameter	< 8.0 km (5.0 mi)
Spectral type	(V–R) = 0.11±0.09 (R–I) = 0.26±0.06
Comet total magnitude (M1)	7.1
Comet nuclear magnitude (M2)	11.5

P/2011 S1 (Gibbs) is a periodic comet or an active centaur with a 25-year orbit around the Sun.

Discovery

American astronomer, Alex R. Gibbs, reported the discovery of a new object from CCD images obtained from the 1.5 m (4.9 ft) reflector telescope from the Mount Lemmon Survey on 19 September 2011. ^[1] Precovery images show that the object produced comet-like activity as early as September 2010, a year before its discovery. ^[5]

References

1. A. R. Gibbs; S. F. Tornero; G. V. Williams (November 2011). D. W. Green (ed.). "Comet P/2011 S1 (Gibbs)". IAU Circular. 9234. Bibcode:2011IAUC.9234....1G.
2. "P/2011 S1 (Gibbs) – JPL Small-Body Database Lookup". ssd.jpl.nasa.gov. Jet Propulsion Laboratory . Retrieved 6 May 2025.
3. S. Yoshida (6 February 2022). "P/2011 S1 (Gibbs)". www.aerith.net. Retrieved 6 May 2025.
4. I. Kulyk; P. Korsun; P. Rousselot; V. Afanasiev; O. Ivanova (2016). "P/2008 CL94 (Lemmon) and P/2011 S1 (Gibbs): Comet-like Activity at Large Heliocentric Distances". Icarus . 271: 314–325. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2016.01.037.
5. H. W. Lin; Y. T. Chen; P. Lacerda; W. H. Ip; M. Holman; et al. (2014). "Pan-STARRS 1 Observations of the Unusual Active Centaur P/2011 S1(Gibbs)". The Astronomical Journal. 147 (5): 114–121. arXiv: 1402.6403 . Bibcode:2014AJ....147..114L. doi: 10.1088/0004-6256/147/5/114 .

External links

• P/2011 S1 at the JPL Small-Body Database
  • Close approach  · Discovery  · Ephemeris  · Orbit viewer  · Orbit parameters  · Physical parameters