16P/Brooks

For other comets discovered by William Robert Brooks, see Comet Brooks.
16P/Brooks
Discovery
Discovered byWilliam Robert Brooks
Discovery date7 July 1889
Designations
1889 V; 1896 VI; 1903 V;
1911 I; 1925 IX; 1932 VIII;
1939 VII; 1946 IV; 1953 V;
1960 VI; 1974 I; 1980 IX;
1987 XXIV; 1994 XXIII
Orbital characteristics
Epoch2023-02-25
Aphelion5.439 AU
Perihelion1.879 AU
Semi-major axis3.659 AU
Eccentricity0.4864
Orbital period6.99 yr
Max. orbital speed40 km/s (1886 Jupiter approach)
26 km/s (2028 perihelion)[1]
Inclination3.011°
Last perihelionApril 18, 2021[2]
June 7, 2014[3][4]
April 12, 2008
Next perihelion2028-Apr-21[1]

16P/Brooks, also known as Brooks 2, is a periodic comet discovered by William Robert Brooks on July 7, 1889, but failed to note any motion. He was able to confirm the discovery the next morning, having seen that the comet had moved north. On August 1, 1889, the famous comet hunter Edward Emerson Barnard discovered two fragments of the comet labeled "B" and "C" located 1 and 4.5 arc minutes away. On August 2, he found another four or five, but these were no longer visible the next day. On August 4, he observed two more objects, labeled "D" and "E". "E" disappeared by the next night and "D" was gone by the next week. Around mid-month, "B" grew large and faint, finally disappearing at the beginning of September. "C" managed to survive until mid-November 1889. The apparition ended on January 13, 1891. After the discovery apparition, the comet has always been over two magnitudes fainter.

1886

The comet's breakup is believed to have been caused by the passage of the comet within Jupiter's Roche limit around 20 July 1886,[5][4][a] when it spent two days within the orbit of Io.[b]

16P/Brooks 2 best-fit Jupiter approach around 1886-Jul-20[5]
Date & time of
closest approach 		Jupiter distance
(AU) 		Sun distance
(AU) 		Velocity
wrt Jupiter
(km/s) 		Velocity
wrt Sun
(km/s) 		Reference
1886-Jul-20 22:32 0.001 AU (150 thousand km; 93 thousand mi; 0.39 LD) 5.457 AU (816 million km; 507 million mi) 41.1 40.1 Horizons

The very close approach to Jupiter in 1886 resulted in the previous perihelion distance becoming the new aphelion distance.

Orbital Elements for 1865 + 1889[6]
Epoch Aphelion
(AD) 		Perihelion
(QR) 		Period
1865 14 AU[c] 5.5 AU 31 years
1889 5.4 AU 1.95 AU 7 years

On 31 December 2016 the comet passed 0.333 AU (49.8 million km) from Jupiter and on 5 July 2053 ± 3 days it will pass about 0.26 AU (39 million km) from Jupiter.[7]

Notes

  1. ^ Jupiter came to aphelion (farthest distance from the Sun) one month later on 1886-Aug-21 at 5.4568 AU.
  2. ^ Io orbits 0.0028 AU (420 thousand km) from Jupiter.
  3. ^ 16P/Brooks came to aphelion (farthest distance from the Sun) around 1870 at ≈14.3 AU.

References

  1. ^ a b "Horizons Batch for 16P/Brooks 2 (90000273) on 2028-Apr-21" (Perihelion occurs when rdot flips from negative to positive). JPL Horizons. Archived from the original on 2022-06-15. Retrieved 2022-06-15. (JPL#K212/6 Soln.date: 2022-Feb-04)
  2. ^ "16P/Brooks Orbit". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 2014-06-16.
  3. ^ Syuichi Nakano (2011-11-01). "16P/Brooks 2 (NK 2146)". OAA Computing and Minor Planet Sections. Retrieved 2012-02-18.
  4. ^ a b Kinoshita, Kazuo (2016-08-01). "16P/Brooks past, present and future orbital elements". Comet Orbit. Archived from the original on 2011-07-10. Retrieved 2023-07-19.
  5. ^ a b "Horizons Batch for 16P/Brooks 2 (90000258) on 1886-Jul-20" (1889–1904 dataset). JPL Horizons. Archived from the original on 2023-07-20. Retrieved 2023-07-19.
  6. ^ Horizons output. "Osculating Orbital Elements for 16P/Brooks (90000258)". Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  7. ^ "JPL Small-Body Database Lookup: 16P/Brooks 2". Archived from the original on 2012-12-12. Retrieved 2023-07-19. 2022-01-29 last obs


Numbered comets
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15P/Finlay 		16P/Brooks Next
17P/Holmes