Skip to content
Surf Wiki
Save to docs
general/periodic-comets

From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

15P/Finlay

Periodic comet with 6 year orbit


Periodic comet with 6 year orbit

FieldValue
name15P/Finlay
imageComet Finlay in 1960 by the US Naval Observatory.jpg
captionComet Finlay photographed from the US Naval Observatory on 26 September 1960
discovererWilliam Henry Finlay
discovery_date26 September 1886
mpc_nameP/1886 S1, P/1893 K1
designations
epoch2014-Dec-09
(JD 2457000.5)
Earth_moid0.009 AU
Jupiter_moid0.16 AU
semimajor3.488 AU
perihelion0.976 AU
aphelion6.019 AU
eccentricity0.7202
period6.51 a
inclination6.799°
last_pJuly 13, 2021
December 27, 2014
June 22, 2008
next_p2028-Feb-09
2034-Sep-08
2041-Apr-03
2047-Oct-25
2054-May-02
2060-Oct-03
dimensions1.8 km (uncertain)

(JD 2457000.5) December 27, 2014 June 22, 2008 2034-Sep-08 2041-Apr-03 2047-Oct-25 2054-May-02 2060-Oct-03

Comet Finlay is a periodic comet with an orbital period of 6 years discovered by William Henry Finlay (Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope, South Africa) on September 26, 1886. The next perihelion passage is July 13, 2021 when the comet will have a solar elongation of 54 degrees at approximately apparent magnitude 10. It last came to perihelion on December 27, 2014, at around magnitude 10. Of the numbered periodic comets, the orbit of 15P/Finlay has one of the smallest minimum orbit intersection distances with the orbit of Earth (E-MOID). In October 2060 the comet will pass about 5 million km from Earth.

Description

EpochPerihelion
(AU)
18661.0
19060.96
19191.0
19811.1
20080.97
20210.99
20281.0

When the first orbit calculations were made in 1886, there was a similarity between this orbit and that of Francesco de Vico's lost periodic comet of 1844 (54P/de Vico-Swift-NEAT). Lewis Boss (Dudley Observatory, Schenectady, United States) noted large discrepancies between the orbits and after further observations concluded that de Vico's comet could not be the same as Finlay's.

During the 1906 apparition the comet brightened to magnitude 6. In 1910 a close pass with Jupiter increased the orbital period, in 1919 the path was off predictions and a new comet discovered by Sasaki (Kyoto Observatory, Japan) on October 25, 1919, was discovered to be Finlay's.

The magnitude of the comet declined after 1926, and it was not until 1953 that it has been observed on every return.

2014–2015

During the 2014 perihelion passage the comet outburst on 16 December 2014 from magnitude 11 to magnitude 9 becoming bright enough to be seen in common binoculars with a 50 mm objective lens. On December 23, 2014, 15P and Mars were only 1/6 of a degree apart in the sky after sunset. But by December 23, 2014, the comet had dimmed considerably since the outburst. On 16 January 2015, the comet outburst to magnitude 8.

2060

15P/Finlay currently has an Earth-MOID of 0.009 AU.

Arids meteor shower

Debris ejected during the 1995 perihelion passage generated a meteor shower on 29–30 September 2021 radiating from the southern constellation of Ara. More outbursts are expected on 7 October 2021 from the 2008 and 2014 streams.

References

|access-date=2014-06-21}}

|author-link=Syuichi Nakano |access-date=2012-02-18}}

|access-date=2020-07-20}}

|access-date=2007-01-31}}

|access-date=2014-12-20|date=2014-12-18}}

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170220010657/http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=15P;cad=1 |archive-date=2017-02-20 |url-status=live |access-date=2022-06-16}}

|archive-url=https://archive.today/20150119001956/https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/comets-ml/conversations/messages/24324 |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 19, 2015 |access-date=2015-01-17}}

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220616142743/https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons_batch.cgi?batch=1&COMMAND=%2790000257%27&START_TIME=%272060-Oct-22+17%3A00%27&STOP_TIME=%272060-Oct-22+18%3A00%27&STEP_SIZE=%2710+minutes%27&QUANTITIES=%2720%2C39%27 |archive-date=2022-06-16 |url-status=live

|access-date=2020-07-27}}

|access-date=2021-10-01}}

References

  1. (2004). "Comets II". University of Arizona Press.
  2. The comet will come to perihelion six more times and then on October 22, 2060, the comet will pass roughly {{convert. 0.0334. AU. e6km e6mi
Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about 15P/Finlay — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report