50P/Arend
Sign in to saveComet Arend or 50P/Arend is a periodic comet in the Solar System which was discovered on October 4, 1951. It was discovered by astronomer Sylvain Julien Victor Arend at the Royal Observatory of Belgium located in the municipality of Uccle. The comet was illustrated at approximately a magnitude of 14 and also exhibited a nucleus within a coma 14 arc seconds across. It has been observed on its every subsequent apparition since discovery, with the most recent one occurred in 2024. The comet's next perihelion will be in the year 2032.
Key facts
- Comet.name
- 50P/Arend
- Comet.image
- Comet Arend 1951j.jpg
- Comet.caption
- Comet 50P/Arend photographed by George van Biesbroeck on 4 November 1951
- Comet.discoverer
- Sylvian Arend
- Comet.discovery_date
- 4 October 1951
- Comet.mpc_name
- P/1951 T1, P/1959 N1
- Comet.epoch
- 21 November 2025 (JD 2461000.5)
- Comet.aphelion
- 6.252 AU
- Comet.perihelion
- 1.922 AU
- Comet.semimajor
- 4.087 AU
- Comet.eccentricity
- 0.5297
- Comet.period
- 8.26a
- Comet.inclination
- 19.100°
- Comet.albedo
- 0.04 (assumed)
- Comet.M1
- 13.9
- Comet.last_p
- 12 May 2024
- Comet.next_p
- 7 August 2032
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- Jupiter-family comet
- Named after
- Sylvain Arend
- Parent body
- Sun
- Diameter
- 1.9
- Orbital period
- 3019.027679922521
- Image
- Comet Arend 1951j.jpg
Show 15 more facts
- discoverer or inventor
- Sylvain Arend
- time of discovery or invention
- 1951-10-04
- location of discovery
- Royal Observatory of Belgium
- provisional designation
- 1959c
- absolute magnitude
- 13.8
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.5299535140380527
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 4.088014667341889
- periapsis
- 1.921556928944954
- apoapsis
- 6.254472405738824
- orbital inclination
- 19.16249670789929
- longitude of ascending node
- 355.3249124534394
- argument of periapsis
- 49.0117767413013
- mean anomaly
- 104.1466423373831
- time of periapsis
- 2454406.1066778125
- epoch
- March 24, 2010
via Wikidata · CC0
~2 min read
Encyclopedic overview
3 sectionsContents
- Observations
- References
- External links
Comet Arend or 50P/Arend is a periodic comet in the Solar System which was discovered on October 4, 1951. It was discovered by astronomer Sylvain Julien Victor Arend at the Royal Observatory of Belgium located in the municipality of Uccle. The comet was illustrated at approximately a magnitude of 14 and also exhibited a nucleus within a coma 14 arc seconds across. It has been observed on its every subsequent apparition since discovery, with the most recent one occurred in 2024. The comet's next perihelion will be in the year 2032.
== Observations == 50P/Arend was observed at its brightest at a maximum magnitude of 14 when it was discovered in 1951. At the comet's next apparition on September 1, 1959, did not exceed 17 if it had not been for an outburst in November which affected its brightness to magnitude 15.5. The observed orbital period was 7.8 years at the time of its discovery however at each succeeding perihelion has led to less favorable observations due to its 0.64 astronomical units (AU) as it approached Jupiter in 1969, even if its maximum magnitude was 15. This approach also led to the comet's orbital period to increase to 8.0 years.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “50P/Arend” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.