Solar System Science

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Last Modified: JeffMangum - 27 Jan 2016

Table of Contents:

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Comets

In the following I some comet science projects that I have done over the years.

Main Belt Comets

For great background, see:

• Dave Jewitt's Active Asteroids Page, which he calls "active asteroids" (there is some disagreement amongst the researchers in this field as to what to call these objects.
• Henry Hsieh's MBC Page: Great overview of MBCs.

Ephemerides for Great Southern Comet 1880 and Great Comet 1881

This topic resulted from a question to my Ask the Astronomer web page. The question I was asked was whether the Great Southern Comet of 1880 and the Great Comet of 1881 were visible from Chile, Bolivia, and Peru. Using the JPL Horizons system and Xephem I was able to make the following calculations and plots:

• Great Southern Comet 1880 Ephemeris December 1879 through January 1880: An ephemeris listing of Great Southern Comet 1880 for the December 1879 through January 1880 period.
• Great Southern Comet 1880 Ephemeris February-June 1880: Same as above but for the February-June 1880 period.
• Great Southern Comet 1880 from La Paz (1): A sky plot of the track of Great Southern Comet 1880 for the December 1879 through January 1880 period. These plots show the track of the comets through the sky with constellations marked.
• Great Southern Comet 1880 from La Paz (2): Same as above but for the second period of time.
• Great Comet 1881 Ephemeris December 1880 through May 1881: An ephemeris listing of Great Comet 1881 for the December 1880 through May 1881 period.
• Great Comet 1881 from La Paz: Same as above but for Great Comet 1881.

Note also the other following useful resources for this type of research:

• JPL Horizons "Great Comets in History" Listing
• JPL Horizons User Manual
• The Kreutz Group of Comets: A description of a group of Sun-grazing comets, called the Kreutz group, which has its origin probably in the destruction of a once much larger celestial body. Great Southern Comet 1880 is thought to be a member of this group.

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