33P/Daniel
Periodic comet with 8 year orbit
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Comet Daniel is a periodic comet in the Solar System discovered by Zaccheus Daniel (Halsted Observatory, Princeton University, New Jersey, United States) on December 7, 1909, estimated as magnitude 9.
The comet on 15 December 1909 by Heidelberg Observatory | |
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Zaccheus Daniel |
| Discovery date | December 7, 1909 |
| Designations | |
| P/1909 X1, P/1937 B1 | |
| Orbital characteristics | |
| Epoch | June 25, 2000 |
| Aphelion | 5.89 AU |
| Perihelion | 2.157 AU |
| Semi-major axis | 4.021 AU |
| Eccentricity | 0.4635 |
| Orbital period | 8.065 a |
| Inclination | 22.41° |
| Last perihelion | November 11, 2024[1][2] August 22, 2016[3] |
| Next perihelion | February 19, 2033[4] |
| Jupiter MOID | 0.152 AU (22,700,000 km)[3] |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 2.6 km[3] |
| Perihelion distance at different epochs[2] | |||||||
| Epoch | Perihelion (AU) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1903 | 1.38 | ||||||
| 1916 | 1.53 | ||||||
| 1964 | 1.66 | ||||||
| 2000 | 2.16 | ||||||
| 2041 | 2.25 | ||||||
Following its discovery, the returns for 1916, 1923, and 1930 were predicted but on each occasion, it was not recovered.
The 1937 return was recovered by Shin-ichi Shimizu (Simada, Japan) on January 31 after a calculation of the comet's orbit by Hidewo Hirose (Tokyo, Japan) after he took calculations for the 1923 return done by Alexander D. Dubiago and took into account perturbations from Jupiter.
Since then, all returns apart from 1957 and 1971 have been recovered.[3]
Since its first discovery, this comet's orbital period has steadily increased due to repeated close encounters with Jupiter.
The comet nucleus is estimated to be 2.6 kilometers in diameter.[3]
At some point between 2009 January 11 and 30 the comet underwent an outburst of around 3 magnitudes, brightening from 18th to 15th magnitude.[5]
