C/1861 J1

Infobox Comet
name=C/1861 J1


discoverer=John Tebbutt
discovery_date=1861
designations=Great Comet of 1861, 1861 II
epoch=2400920.5
semimajor=55 AU
perihelion=0.82 AU
aphelion=109 AU
eccentricity=0.98507
period=408 a
inclination= 85.4°
last_p=June 12, 1861
next_p=2269

The Great Comet of 1861 formally designated C/1861 J1 and 1861 II, was a comet that was visible to the naked eye for approximately 3 months. It was categorized as a Great Comet, one of eight in the 19th century.

It was discovered by John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales, Australia, on May 13, 1861, with an apparent magnitude of +4, a month before perihelion (June 11). It was not visible in the northern hemisphere until June 29, but it arrived before word of the comet's discovery.

The comet of 1861 interacted with the Earth in an almost unprecedented way. For two days, when the comet was at its closest (0.1326 AU), the Earth was actually within the comet's tail, and streams of cometary material converging towards the distant nucleus could be seen. By day also the comet's gas and dust even obscured the Sun.

By the middle of August the comet was no longer visible to the naked eye, but it was visible in telescopes until May 1862. An elliptical orbit with a period of about 400 years was calculated, which would indicate a previous appearance about the middle of the 15th century, and a return in the 23rd century.

As of 1992 this Great Comet had traveled more than 100 AU from the Sun, making it even further away than dwarf planet Eris. It will come to aphelion around 2063.

I. Hasegawa and S. Nakano suggest that this comet is identical with C/1500 H1. cite journal | url=http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1995PASJ...47..699H | last=Hasegawa | first=Ichiro | coauthors=Nakano, Syuichi | title=Periodic Comets Found in Historical Records | journal=Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan | volume=47 | issue=5 | date=October 1995 | pages=699–710]

Footnotes

External links

* [http://cometography.com/lcomets/1861j1.html C/1861 J1 (Great Comet of 1861)] on Cometography.com
* [http://www.phenomena.org.uk/Cometof1861.htm The Comet of 1861] , Gallery of Natural Phenomena
* [http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/data/ELEMENTS.COMET JPL DASTCOM Comet Orbital Elements]
* [http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=1861J1;orb=1 Orbital simulation] from JPL (Java) / [http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi?find_body=1&body_group=sb&sstr=1861J1 Ephemeris]

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