D/1895 Q1 (Swift)
{{Short description|Lost comet}}
{{For|other comets discovered by Lewis A. Swift|Comet Swift}}
{{Infobox comet
| name = D/1895 Q1 (Swift)
| image =
| caption =
| discovery_ref = {{r|cometography}}
| discoverer = Lewis A. Swift
| discovery_site = Mount Lowe Obs.
| discovery_date = 24 August 1895
| mpc_name =
| designations =
| orbit_ref = {{r|jpl|Yoshida_2019}}
| epoch = 25 August 1895 (JD 2413430.5)
| observation_arc = 166 days
| earliest_precovery_date =
| obs = 182
| orbit =
| aphelion = 6.1609 AU
| perihelion = 1.2978 AU
| semimajor = 3.7293 AU
| eccentricity = 0.9725
| period = 7.2 years
| inclination = 2.9923°
| asc_node = 171.75°
| arg_peri = 167.78°
| tjup = 2.677
| Earth_moid =
| Jupiter_moid =
| physical_ref = {{r|Frisby_1895}}
| M1 =
| M2 =
| magnitude = 13.0
(1895 apparition)
| last_p = 21 August 1895
(observed)
17 February 2019
(calculated)
| next_p = 19 September 2026
(calculated)
| b_semimajor =
| b_period =
}}
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.{{r|cometography}}
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.{{r|Phillips1|Phillips2}} What caused it remained a mystery until in 2006, astronomer Paul Wiegert examined old comet data and found that Mariner 4 would have been {{convert|20|e6km|e6mi|abbr=unit}} from the possibly shattered nucleus of D/1895 Q1 (Swift).{{r|cometography}} 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
References
{{Reflist|refs=
| author1= G. W. Kronk
| title= D/1895 Q1 (Swift)
| url= https://cometography.com/pcomets/1895q1.html
| website= Cometography.com
| access-date= 30 October 2024 }}
| author1= E. Frisby
| author2= G. A. Hill
| title= Observations of comet 1895a
| url= https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/link_gateway/1895AJ.....15..174F/ADS_PDF
| journal= Astronomical Journal
| year= 1895
| volume= 15
| issue= 357
| pages= 174–175
| bibcode= 1895AJ.....15..174F
| doi= 10.1086/102311
| doi-access= free }}
| title= D/1895 Q1 (Swift) – JPL Small-Body Database Lookup
| url= https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html#/?sstr=1895Q1
| website= ssd.jpl.nasa.gov
| publisher= Jet Propulsion Laboratory
| access-date= 30 October 2024 }}
| url= https://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/23aug_mariner4.htm
| title= Mariner Meteor Mystery, Solved?
| author1= T. Phillips
| website= science.nasa.gov
| publisher= NASA
| date= 23 August 2006
| access-date= 11 February 2009
| url-status= dead
| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090406234926/http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/23aug_mariner4.htm
| archive-date= 6 April 2009 }}
| url= http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/Has_The_Mariner_Meteor_Mystery_Been_Solved_999.html
| title= Has the Mariner Meteor Mystery Been Solved
| author1= T. Phillips
| work= Mars Daily
| date= 24 August 2006
| access-date= 11 February 2009 }}
| author1= S. Yoshida
| title= D/1895 Q1 ( Swift )
| url= http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/1895Q1/index.html
| date= 11 March 2019
| access-date = 30 October 2024 }}
}}