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(meteorobs) Re: meteorobs-digest V3 #821
> Joe Rao wrote :
> This may be all well and good, however, I think it should be pointed out
> that at the end of the circular Brian Marsden reports that " . . . the
> "original" and "future" barycentric values of 1/a are +0.000004 and -0.000741
> (+/- 0.000118) AU**-1, respectively." This yields an eccentricity for the
> comet orbit of e = 1.0007831, which means it may very well be a "new" comet
> from the Oort cloud. In the past, such comets, with great promise, have
> ultimately proven to be "duds." Excellent examples are Comet Cunningham in
> 1940-41, Comet Kohoutek in 1973-74 and most recently, Comet Austin in 1990.
>
> One of the reasons why optimism ran high for Comet Hale-Bopp nearly two
> years in advance of its perihelion was that it was determined to have an
> orbit resembling a long ellipse with a period of roughly 4000 years and hence
> had already been through the inner solar system at least once before. My
> hopes would be similarly as high for Comet NEAT if only its eccentricity were
> calculated to be less than 1.0
>
>
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the key note here is thatthe "original" 1/a is a positive number - meaning that
the comet has been here before. It's currently on a
hyperbolic orbit, but perhaps it has been here before,
though it may not be returning.
Regards,
Greg
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