Comet Zhu–Balam
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Comet Zhu–Balam
Comet Zhu–Balam (C/1997 L1) is a long-period comet first identified by David D. Balam on June 8, 1997 and originally photographed by Jin Zhu on June 3, 1997. The comet is estimated at 10 kilometres in diameter with a period of approximately 36,800 years. Given the orbital eccentricity of this object, different epochs can generate quite different heliocentric unperturbed two-body best-fit solutions to the aphelion distance (maximum distance) of this object. For objects at such high eccentricity, the Suns barycentric coordinates are more stable than heliocentric coordinates. Using JPL Horizons the barycentric orbital elements for epoch 2015-Jan-01 generate a semi-major axis of 1100 AU and a period of approximately 36,800 years. (Solution using the Solar System Barycenter and barycentric coordinates In mathematics, an affine space is a geometric structure that generalizes some of the properties of Euclidean spaces in such a way that these are independent of the ...
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David D
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the third king of the United Kingdom of Israel. In the Books of Samuel, he is described as a young shepherd and harpist who gains fame by slaying Goliath, a champion of the Philistines, in southern Canaan. David becomes a favourite of Saul, the first king of Israel; he also forges a notably close friendship with Jonathan, a son of Saul. However, under the paranoia that David is seeking to usurp the throne, Saul attempts to kill David, forcing the latter to go into hiding and effectively operate as a fugitive for several years. After Saul and Jonathan are both killed in battle against the Philistines, a 30-year-old David is anointed king over all of Israel and Judah. Following his rise to power, D ...
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Curve Fitting
Curve fitting is the process of constructing a curve, or mathematical function, that has the best fit to a series of data points, possibly subject to constraints. Curve fitting can involve either interpolation, where an exact fit to the data is required, or smoothing, in which a "smooth" function is constructed that approximately fits the data. A related topic is regression analysis, which focuses more on questions of statistical inference such as how much uncertainty is present in a curve that is fit to data observed with random errors. Fitted curves can be used as an aid for data visualization, to infer values of a function where no data are available, and to summarize the relationships among two or more variables. Extrapolation refers to the use of a fitted curve beyond the range of the observed data, and is subject to a degree of uncertainty since it may reflect the method used to construct the curve as much as it reflects the observed data. For linear-algebraic analy ...
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Discoveries By SCAP
Discoveries may refer to: Music * ''Discoveries'' (Cannonball Adderley album), 1955 * ''Discoveries'' (Josh Nelson album), 2011 * ''Discoveries'' (Northlane album), 2011 Other uses * ''Discoveries'' (film), a 1939 British film * Discoveries (horse), a racehorse * ''Discoveries'' (Robertson Davies), a 2002 book by Robertson Davies * ''Discoveries'' (TV series), a Canadian youth science television series which aired on CBC Television in 1957 * ''Abrams Discoveries'', a series of illustrated non-fiction books published by Harry N. Abrams * ''Discoveries'', a work by William Butler Yeats, written in 1907 * ''Discoveries'', a magazine published by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center See also * Age of Discoveries * Discovery (other) * Explorations (other) Explorations may refer to: *The plural of exploration Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occu ...
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Non-periodic Comets
A periodic function is a function that repeats its values at regular intervals. For example, the trigonometric functions, which repeat at intervals of 2\pi radians, are periodic functions. Periodic functions are used throughout science to describe oscillations, waves, and other phenomena that exhibit periodicity. Any function that is not periodic is called aperiodic. Definition A function is said to be periodic if, for some nonzero constant , it is the case that :f(x+P) = f(x) for all values of in the domain. A nonzero constant for which this is the case is called a period of the function. If there exists a least positive constant with this property, it is called the fundamental period (also primitive period, basic period, or prime period.) Often, "the" period of a function is used to mean its fundamental period. A function with period will repeat on intervals of length , and these intervals are sometimes also referred to as periods of the function. Geometrically, ...
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Center Of Mass
In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the balance point) is the unique point where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. This is the point to which a force may be applied to cause a linear acceleration without an angular acceleration. Calculations in mechanics are often simplified when formulated with respect to the center of mass. It is a hypothetical point where the entire mass of an object may be assumed to be concentrated to visualise its motion. In other words, the center of mass is the particle equivalent of a given object for application of Newton's laws of motion. In the case of a single rigid body, the center of mass is fixed in relation to the body, and if the body has uniform density, it will be located at the centroid. The center of mass may be located outside the physical body, as is sometimes the case for hollow or open-shaped objects, such as a horseshoe. In the case of a ...
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Semi-major Axis
In geometry, the major axis of an ellipse is its longest diameter: a line segment that runs through the center and both foci, with ends at the two most widely separated points of the perimeter. The semi-major axis (major semiaxis) is the longest semidiameter or one half of the major axis, and thus runs from the centre, through a focus, and to the perimeter. The semi-minor axis (minor semiaxis) of an ellipse or hyperbola is a line segment that is at right angles with the semi-major axis and has one end at the center of the conic section. For the special case of a circle, the lengths of the semi-axes are both equal to the radius of the circle. The length of the semi-major axis of an ellipse is related to the semi-minor axis's length through the eccentricity and the semi-latus rectum \ell, as follows: The semi-major axis of a hyperbola is, depending on the convention, plus or minus one half of the distance between the two branches. Thus it is the distance from the cen ...
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JPL Horizons On-Line Ephemeris System
JPL Horizons On-Line Ephemeris System provides access to key Solar System data and flexible production of highly accurate ephemerides for Solar System objects. Osculating elements at a given epoch (such as produced by the JPL Small-Body Database) are always an approximation to an object's orbit (i.e. an unperturbed conic orbit or a " two-body" orbit). The real orbit (or the best approximation to such) considers perturbations by all planets, a few of the larger asteroids, a few other usually small physical forces, and requires numerical integration. Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) ephemerides do not use things such as periods, eccentricities, etc. Instead, JPL integrates the equations of motion in Cartesian coordinates (x,y,z), and adjusts the initial conditions in order to fit modern, highly accurate measurements of planetary positions. Since August 2013, Horizons has been using ephemeris DE431. During the week of 12 April 2021, the Horizons ephemeris system was updated ...
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Barycentric Coordinates (astronomy)
In astronomy, the barycenter (or barycentre; ) is the center of mass of two or more bodies that orbit one another and is the point about which the bodies orbit. A barycenter is a dynamical point, not a physical object. It is an important concept in fields such as astronomy and astrophysics. The distance from a body's center of mass to the barycenter can be calculated as a two-body problem. If one of the two orbiting bodies is much more massive than the other and the bodies are relatively close to one another, the barycenter will typically be located within the more massive object. In this case, rather than the two bodies appearing to orbit a point between them, the less massive body will appear to orbit about the more massive body, while the more massive body might be observed to wobble slightly. This is the case for the Earth–Moon system, whose barycenter is located on average from Earth's center, which is 75% of Earth's radius of . When the two bodies are of similar ma ...
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Two-body Problem
In classical mechanics, the two-body problem is to predict the motion of two massive objects which are abstractly viewed as point particles. The problem assumes that the two objects interact only with one another; the only force affecting each object arises from the other one, and all other objects are ignored. The most prominent case of the classical two-body problem is the gravitational case (see also Kepler problem), arising in astronomy for predicting the orbits (or escapes from orbit) of objects such as satellites, planets, and stars. A two-point-particle model of such a system nearly always describes its behavior well enough to provide useful insights and predictions. A simpler "one body" model, the " central-force problem", treats one object as the immobile source of a force acting on the other. One then seeks to predict the motion of the single remaining mobile object. Such an approximation can give useful results when one object is much more massive than the other (a ...
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Zhu Jin (astronomer)
Zhu Jin (; born April 24, 1965), is a Chinese astronomer. He is the current curator of Beijing Planetarium. Early life Zhu Jin was born on April 24, 1965, in Beijing, China, with his ancestral home in Lantian County, Shaanxi. He enrolled in the Department of Astronomy of Beijing Normal University and graduated in July, 1985. After that he continued studying astronomy in Nanjing University and got his Ph.D. in July, 1991. He worked as assistant researcher, associate professor and researcher in succession in Beijing Astronomical Observatory (now part of National Astronomical Observatory) of Chinese Academy of Sciences from July 1991 to September 2002, and especially as a postdoctoral researcher between May 1992 and April 1994. He moved to Beijing Planetarium in September 2002, since when working as curator. Academic achievements Zhu Jin's major achievements in astronomy lies in the research of asteroids. He has been the host of the Beijing Schmidt CCD Asteroid Program sinc ...
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Epoch (astronomy)
In astronomy, an epoch or reference epoch is a moment in time used as a reference point for some time-varying astronomical quantity. It is useful for the celestial coordinates or orbital elements of a celestial body, as they are subject to perturbations and vary with time. These time-varying astronomical quantities might include, for example, the mean longitude or mean anomaly of a body, the node of its orbit relative to a reference plane, the direction of the apogee or aphelion of its orbit, or the size of the major axis of its orbit. The main use of astronomical quantities specified in this way is to calculate other relevant parameters of motion, in order to predict future positions and velocities. The applied tools of the disciplines of celestial mechanics or its subfield orbital mechanics (for predicting orbital paths and positions for bodies in motion under the gravitational effects of other bodies) can be used to generate an ephemeris, a table of values giving the po ...
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Orbital Eccentricity
In astrodynamics, the orbital eccentricity of an astronomical object is a dimensionless parameter that determines the amount by which its orbit around another body deviates from a perfect circle. A value of 0 is a circular orbit, values between 0 and 1 form an elliptic orbit, 1 is a parabolic escape orbit (or capture orbit), and greater than 1 is a hyperbola. The term derives its name from the parameters of conic sections, as every Kepler orbit is a conic section. It is normally used for the isolated two-body problem, but extensions exist for objects following a rosette orbit through the Galaxy. Definition In a two-body problem with inverse-square-law force, every orbit is a Kepler orbit. The eccentricity of this Kepler orbit is a non-negative number that defines its shape. The eccentricity may take the following values: * circular orbit: ''e'' = 0 * elliptic orbit: 0 < ''e'' < 1 *