Three comets near of the Earth...

[Fightspit]

I have download a catalog of comets here:
http://celestiamotherlode.net/catalog/s ... don_id=646

and I discovered that ! :




Look at the date: ..... 13 May 2006.....

I want to know if the three comets is the "same" comet....
So ?

[selden]

What does it say in their SSC file?

[Malenfant]

http://cometography.com/pcomets/073p.html

Basically it looks like it was once one comet, then - possibly in 1995/1996 - the nucleus split into three chunks, maybe by gravitational interaction with something. So that's why you have three nuclei so close together.

[Fightspit]

What does it say in their SSC file?

Code: Select all

# 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3-B
"73P Schwassmann-Wachmann 3-B" "Sol"
{
   Class "comet"
   Mesh "asteroid.cms"
   Texture "asteroid.jpg"
   Radius 3.0      # guess
        Albedo 0.1
   EllipticalOrbit
   {
      Period                5.362897
      PericenterDistance    0.937503066436104
      Eccentricity          0.694010598757786
      Inclination          11.40605461272333
      AscendingNode        69.92112490177914
      ArgOfPericenter     198.7836450322278
                MeanAnomaly           0.0
      Epoch           2451937.477355219
   }
   InfoURL "http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/eph"
}

# 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3-C
"73P Schwassmann-Wachmann 3-C" "Sol"
{
   Class "comet"
   Mesh "asteroid.cms"
   Texture "asteroid.jpg"
   Radius 5.5      # guess
        Albedo 0.1
   EllipticalOrbit
   {
      Period                5.357471
      PericenterDistance    0.9377136877336958
      Eccentricity          0.6937352242217608
      Inclination          11.40529552689115
      AscendingNode        69.92490999735915
      ArgOfPericenter     198.7810542138613
                MeanAnomaly           0.0
      Epoch           2451937.189300806
   }
   InfoURL "http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/eph"
}

# 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3-E
"73P Schwassmann-Wachmann 3-E" "Sol"
{
   Class "comet"
   Mesh "asteroid.cms"
   Texture "asteroid.jpg"
   Radius 4.0      # guess
        Albedo 0.1
   EllipticalOrbit
   {
      Period                5.358832
      PericenterDistance    0.9374369945488149
      Eccentricity          0.6938774627626997
      Inclination          11.40562117591055
      AscendingNode        69.91710448172594
      ArgOfPericenter     198.7732444491985
                MeanAnomaly           0.0
      Epoch           2451937.953401424
   }
   InfoURL "http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/eph"
}

And thanks Malenfant for this informations.

[buggs_moran]

Ooh, boy am I happy you noticed this comet...either way we might get a show... If it hasn't broken totally apart, a 3 nuclei comet, if it has disintigrated more, a potential meteor storm. This is definitely going on the calendar.

The next predicted perihelion date is 2006 June 7 and the comet will pass 0.0735 AU from Earth on May 13, being only slightly farther away than during the original discovery apparition of 1930. Important questions are: Will any of the secondary nuclei still exist? or Will the comet still exist? A meteor shower was predicted and observed by Japanese observers during 1930, with an unexpected outburst of 60 or 70 per hour (this is not a corrected zenithal hourly rate, but the raw numbers) occurring on the nights of June 9 and 10. The possibility exists that another outburst could occur in 2006. If the comet no longer exists as of 2006, a meteor storm might be possible

[PlutonianEmpire]

Will the entire world see it, or just one hemisphere? I ask because I'm going to australia next year with my parents for one month--my first ever overseas trip, and I hope I don't miss the comet(s)/meteor storm!

[symaski62]

windows OSRA ^^

[buggs_moran]

I probably should've mentioned I will be looking at it through a scope, not naked eye. My exitement over this is as an amature astronomer. Didn't mean to get "naked eye" casual observers hopes up...

[PlutonianEmpire]

I probably should've mentioned I will be looking at it through a scope, not naked eye. My exitement over this is as an amature astronomer. Didn't mean to get "naked eye" casual observers hopes up...

Ohh, sorry. My bad. Really, I'm mostly interested in seeing meteor storms; The idea of objects flying into the earth is rather exciting to me.