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Dynamics of Cats: Barnard's Comet of 1889 Returns
Posted on: June 25, 2006 11:06 PM, by Steinn Sigurdsson

Speculations on astronomy, astrophysics, news I find interesting, theoretical issues, science and science policy. I will digress into computational physics, science fiction and general issues and basically whatever I feel like whenever. And, of course, cats.

The Minor Planet Center reports the discovery by L. Buzzi of the Schiaparelli Observatory, Varese, Italy of comet P/2006 M3.

Computations by Green strongly suggests it is Barnard's comet of 1889 (c). Returning with a about a 128 year period.

Welcome back.

New orbit estimate is 119 year period, with apperihelion at about 1.1 AU and eccentricity of 0.95.

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http://www.barnard.nl/english4.html

Barnard's comet was seen in 1889, by the American astronomer E.E. Barnard, and will pass Earth again in 2017.

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The six names (repeated because it's amusing):

177P/ Barnard, P/2006 M3 (Barnhard), Barnard 2, P/1889 M1, 1889 III, and 1889c (Barnard)

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"New orbit estimate is 119 year period, with apperihelion at about 1.1 AU and eccentricity of 0.95."

and

"Barnard's comet was seen in 1889, by the American astronomer E.E. Barnard, and will pass Earth again in 2017."

don't agree... looks like the perihelion will be in 2008? Rather than 2017?

[pissant]

Yes, grasshoppa...

[backhoe]

E.E. Barnard:
http://www.seds.org/messier/xtra/Bios/barnard.html
"Edward Emerson Barnard was one of the great observational astronomers..."

Photos:
http://www.klima-luft.de/steinicke/ngcic/persons/barnard.htm

Also known as "Eagle Eye."

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Ping!

[SunkenCiv]

this nice tidbit was in the article about 177P/Barnard:

Analysis of currently observed comets: 177P/Barnard
Andreas Kammerer
2006

On June 23, 2006 an asteroidal object of magnitude 17 was discovered near the border of the constellations Ophiuchus and Sagittarius, which was found to be cometary in the course of more detailed observations. Observations on the following day showed a round 6" coma with a distinct central condensation. Orbit calculations made shortly after the discovery indicated that the object is identical with comet P/Barnard 2 (1889c = 1889 III), which was reported as faint and very diffuse during its whole apparition. However, the observations of 1889 can only be linked to the ones of 2006 by assuming significant non-gravitational forces.