273P/Pons-Gambart
Discovery
Discovered byJean-Louis Pons, Jean-Félix Adolphe Gambart (first discovery)
Rob Matson (second discovery)
Discovery dateJune 21, 1827 (first discovery)
November 7, 2012 (second discovery)
Designations
1110 K1?;[1] C/1827 M1; C/2012 V4
Orbital characteristics
Epoch2014-May-22 (2456799.5)
Aphelion64.274 AU
Perihelion0.81043 AU
Semi-major axis32.542 AU
Eccentricity0.97509
Orbital period185.6 years
Inclination136.39
Last perihelionDecember 19, 2012[2]
June 8, 1827
Next perihelion≈2191-Aug-09[3]
TJupiter-0.643
Earth MOID0.17 AU (25 million km)

273P/Pons–Gambart, also called Comet Pons-Gambart, is a short-period comet in a retrograde orbit first discovered on June 21, 1827 by Jean-Louis Pons and Jean-Félix Adolphe Gambart. It has a 186 year orbit and will next come to perihelion around August 2191.[3] It fits the classical definition of a Halley-type comet with (20 years < period < 200 years). It was lost and was not recovered until November 7, 2012, when amateur astronomer Rob Matson discovered a comet, and it was identified that the pre-recovery short-arc orbital calculations for Pons-Gambart were completely wrong because the comet only had a 1-month observation arc with poor data.[4] It was last observed in April 2014 when it was 5.8 AU (870 million km) from the Sun.[2]

The original name when first discovered was C/1827 M1.[5] Before the 2012 return, when Comet Pons–Gambart was speculated to have a roughly 60 year orbit it was suspected of possibly being comet 1110 K1.[1]

Of the numbered periodic comets only 153P/Ikeya-Zhang has a longer orbital period.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Hasegawa, Ichiro; Nakano, Syuichi (October 1995). "Periodic Comets Found in Historical Records". Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan. 47 (5): 699–710. Bibcode:1995PASJ...47..699H.
  2. 1 2 MPC
  3. 1 2 "Horizons Batch for 273P/Pons-Gambart on 2191-Aug-09" (Perihelion occurs when rdot flips from negative to positive). JPL Horizons. Archived from the original on May 2, 2023. Retrieved May 2, 2023. (JPL#11/Soln.date: 2021-Apr-15)
  4. ↑ Kronk, Gary W. "273P/Pons-Gambart". Retrieved September 6, 2015.
  5. ↑ Seargent, David A. J. (March 15, 2017). Visually Observing Comets. Springer. ISBN 9783319454351.
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