C/2007 Q3 (Siding Spring)
Semi-major axis ~7,500 AU (outbound)[4] (a) | | |
| Eccentricity | 1.0002077[5] | |
|---|---|---|
| Orbital period | Millions of years (inbound) ~650,000 yr (outbound)[4] | |
| Inclination | 65.6504° | |
| Last perihelion | October 7, 2009 | |
| Jupiter MOID | 3.13 AU | |
C/2007 Q3 (Siding Spring), is an Oort cloud comet that was discovered by Donna Burton in 2007 at Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales, Australia.[6] Siding Spring came within 1.2 astronomical units of Earth and 2.25 AU of the Sun on October 7, 2009.[1] The comet was visible with binoculars until January 2010.[6]
Images of the comet taken in March 2010 by N.Howes using the Faulkes telescope, showed that the nucleus had fragmented.[7]
The comet has an observation
Before entering the planetary region (epoch 1950), C/2007 Q3 had a calculated barycentric orbital period of ~6.4 million years with an apoapsis (aphelion) distance of about 69,000 AU (1.09 light-years).[4] The comet was probably in the outer Oort cloud for millions or billions of years with a loosely bound chaotic orbit until it was perturbed inward.[8]
References
- ^ a b "Visitor from Deep Space". NASA. February 17, 2010. Retrieved on February 19, 2010.
- ^ "IAUC 8865: P/2007 Q2; C/2007 Q3". IAU Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams. 2007-08-30. Retrieved 2011-04-20.
- IAU Minor Planet Center. 2007-08-30. Retrieved 2011-04-20.
- ^ Barycenter. Ephemeris Type:Elements and Center:@0 (To be outside planetary region, inbound epoch 1950 and outbound epoch 2050)
- ^ a b "JPL Small-Body Database Browser: C/2007 Q3 (Siding Spring)" (2011-04-13 last obs). Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 2011-03-07.
- ^ a b Evans, Kate (February 19, 2010). "'Australian' comet captured by NASA". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved on February 19, 2010.
- ^ Baldwin, Emily (March 17, 2010). "Is Comet Siding Spring splitting up? Archived 2010-03-22 at the Wayback Machine". Astronomy Now. Retrieved on March 19, 2010.
- ^ "Multimedia Gallery: comet Siding Spring streaking across the sky". WISE. Feb 17, 2010. Retrieved 2011-04-20.
External links
- Orbital simulation from JPL (Java) / Horizons Ephemeris
- C/2007 Q3 ( Siding Spring ) - Seiichi Yoshida @ aerith.net (with pictures taken by different astronomers around the world)
- Curious coma-tail of C/2007 Q3 (Siding-Spring) (Remanzacco Observatory March 9, 2009)
- Splitting of C/2007 Q3 (Siding spring) nucleus (Leonid Elenin April 2, 2010)
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