D/1895 Q1 (Swift)

For other comets discovered by Lewis A. Swift, see Comet Swift.

D/1895 Q1 (Swift) is one of 13 comets discovered by American astronomer, Lewis A. Swift. A Jupiter-family comet, it was last seen in February 1896 and was not observed since.^[1]

D/1895 Q1 (Swift)

Discovery[1]
Discovered by	Lewis A. Swift
Discovery site	Mount Lowe Obs.
Discovery date	24 August 1895
Orbital characteristics[2][3]
Epoch	25 August 1895 (JD 2413430.5)
Observation arc	166 days
Number of observations	182
Aphelion	6.1609 AU
Perihelion	1.2978 AU
Semi-major axis	3.7293 AU
Eccentricity	0.9725
Orbital period	7.2 years
Inclination	2.9923°
Longitude of ascending node	171.75°
Argument of periapsis	167.78°
Last perihelion	21 August 1895 (observed) 17 February 2019 (calculated)
Next perihelion	19 September 2026 (calculated)
TJupiter	2.677
Physical characteristics[4]
Apparent magnitude	13.0 (1895 apparition)

Possible encounter with Mariner 4

On September 15, 1967, the Mariner 4 spacecraft encountered a dense "meteor storm" that is more intense than anything seen from Earth for 45 minutes, which may have damaged bits of insulation and temporarily changed the attitude of the spacecraft.^[5][6] What caused it remained a mystery until in 2006, astronomer Paul Wiegert examined old comet data and found that Mariner 4 would have been 20 million km (12 million mi) from the possibly shattered nucleus of D/1895 Q1 (Swift).^[1] However, Wiegert noted that the comet's orbit during its 1895 apparition wasn't precisely known, leading to a large potential error in the comet's expected location in 1967.

See also

• List of minor planets and comets visited by spacecraft