In: Physics
Comet ISON is one of the more recent comets that was originally called the "comet of the century" but turned out to be less spectacular than predicted, while in the mid-1990s, there were two other very bright comets visible that made them real "comets of the century". Still, though, let's compare their orbits.
a) Here is the link to the ephemeris for ISON: http://scully.cfa.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/returnprepeph.cgi?d=c&o=CK12S010 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. -- note that q is the perihelion distance, and e is its eccentricity. Why don't they list a semi-major axis or period for its orbit? Can you describe what happened after its perihelion passage and how that relates to the values you gave previously?
b) Here is the link to the ephemeris for Hale-Bopp: http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/comet/ephemjpl8.html (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. -- note that q and e are provided for it, too. Calculate its semi-major axis in AU.
c) Calculate the aphelion and perihelion velocities for Hale-Bopp. Calculate the circular velocity for an object with a circular orbit with a radius equal to the aphelion distance of Hale-Bopp. How much would you have to change the velocity of an object on a circular orbit at that distance to put it on an orbit like Hale-Bopp's? What mechanisms do you know of that would potentially be able to change an object's velocity by that much?