Ryves Comet
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
Semi-major axis | 111 AU |
| Eccentricity | 0.999326 |
| Orbital period | N/A |
| Inclination | 169.29° |
| 102.28° | |
| Argument of periapsis | 168.15° |
| Last perihelion | 25 August 1931 |
Ryves Comet, also known as C/1931 P1, 1931 E or 1931c, was discovered by Percy Mayow Ryves, an English amateur astronomer, on August 10, 1931. The comet passed perihelion on 25 August 1931 at a distance of 7 million miles from the Sun.[2]
Observational history
The comet was discovered by amateur astronomer Percy Mayow Ryves on 10 August 1931.George van Biesbroeck observed the comet on 14 August 1931 and noted it had a tail one degree long and estimated its apparent magnitude to be 4.[4]
It appeared as a ball of hot gas traveling at one hundred miles per second from the
Venus, however it was too close to the Sun and the horizon to be observed. It then moved towards the far side of the Sun.[3]
Ryves Comet was recovered in early October and its brightness was estimated to be of ninth
Edwin B. Frost, determined that Ryves Comet was two hours east of the Sun and seven degrees removed from it. In October it was one hundred times fainter than when it was first observed in August.[5] Its coma had then an estimated diameter of 3−4 arcminutes and its tail was estimated photographically to be three quarters of a degree long and facing towards the Sun.[6]
Its orbit indicates that it approached
Jupiter down to 0.15 astronomical units (22×106 km; 14×106 mi) resulting to a hyperbolic orbit before perihelion.[7]
References
- ^ "Small-Body Database Lookup: C/1931 P1 (Ryves)". ssd.jpl.nasa.gov. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
- ^ New York Times. August 28, 1931. p. 13.
- ^ doi:10.1086/124164.
- ISSN 0081-0304.
- New York Times. October 9, 1931. p. 2.
- ISSN 0197-7482.
- .
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