C/1862 N1 (Schmidt)

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C/1862 N1 (Schmidt)
Discovery
Discovered byJohann Friedrich Julius Schmidt
Discovery siteAthens Observatory
Discovery date2 July 1862
Designations
1862 II
Orbital characteristics[1]
Epoch4 July 1862 (JD 2401325.5)
Observation arc29 days
Number of
observations		72
Perihelion0.981 AU
Eccentricity1.0
Inclination172.11°
328.44°
Argument of
periapsis		27.17°
Last perihelion22 June 1862
Physical characteristics[2]
Comet total
magnitude (M1)		9.4
4–5
(1862 apparition)

C/1862 N1 (Schmidt), sometimes referred to as C/1862 N1 (Schmidt–Temple), is a non-periodic comet discovered by Johann Friedrich Julius Schmidt on 2 July 1862.

Observational history

The comet was discovered on 2 July 1862 Johann Friedrich Julius Schmidt, then director of the National Observatory of Athens, and a few hours later was discovered by Wilhelm Tempel, at Marseille Observatory. The comet upon discovery was located in the constellation Cassiopeia and Schmidt described the comet as being tailless, with a coma 22 arcminutes across, and visible with the naked eye. Temple estimated its magnitude to be 4–5. Schmidt observed the comet again on July 4 and noted a tail half a degree long.[2]

The comet passed at a distance of 0.0982 astronomical units (14,690,000 km; 9,130,000 mi) from Earth on 4 July, making it the fourth closest known approach of a comet to Earth in the 19th century.[3] Consequently the comet moved away from both the Earth and the Sun, while brightening moonlight hampered observations. The comet was last observed with the naked eye on 7 July. The comet faded rapidly throughout the month and it was last observed on 31 July.[2]

Meteors

The comet has been tentatively associated with the weak meteor shower ζ Arietids, observed between 13 and 25 August. The minimum orbital intersection distance between the comet and Earth is 0.028 AU.[4][5]

References

  1. ^ "C/1862 N1 (Schmidt) – JPL Small-Body Database Lookup". ssd.jpl.nasa.gov. Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 14 January 2025.
  2. ^ a b c G. W. Kronk (2003). Cometography: A Catalog of Comets. Vol. 2: 1800–1899. Cambridge University Press. pp. 305–307. ISBN 978-0-521-58505-7.
  3. ^ "NEO Earth Close Approaches". cneos.jpl.nasa.gov. Retrieved 14 January 2025.
  4. ^ Lindblad, B. A. (1 January 1971). "A computerized stream search among 2401 photographic meteor orbits". Smithsonian Contributions to Astrophysics. 12: 14–24.
  5. ^ Šegon, D.; Gural, P.; Andreić, Ž.; Skokić, I.; Korlević, K.; Vida, D.; Novoselnik, F. (1 July 2014). "A parent body search across several video meteor data bases". The Meteoroids 2013, Proceedings of the Astronomical Conference held at A.M. University, Poznań, Poland, Aug. 26-30, 2013: 251–262.