The Kreutz Group

Heinrich Carl Friedrich Kreutz (1854-1907), when investigating the orbits of comets, discovered a group of sun-grazing comets, now called Kreutz group, which has its origin probably in the destruction of a once much larger celestial body (Kreutz 1888, 1891, 1901).

As expected for such a case, the member comets of the Kreutz group all have similar orbital elements. With the help of satellites observing the Sun, in particular SOHO, a large number of new Kreutz group comets has been discovered in recent years, reaching 475 member comets as of October 31, 2002, and a continuing stream of discoveries can be expected for the future. Also, at least three more comet groups have been discovered recently, two of them by amateur astronomers (Meyer 2003).

Comets of the Kreutz Group:

Comet                 q          P    i        lP      bP

X/1106 C1 C/1668 E1 1668 0.066604 144.375 248.61 +33.23 C/1695 U1 1695 X/1702 D1 C/1843 D1 1843 I 0.005527 128 144.348 281.86 +35.31 Great March Comet C/1880 C1 1880 I 0.005494 144.660 281.68 +35.25 1880a Great Southern Comet C/1882 R1 1882 II 0.007751 759 142.005 282.24 +35.24 1882b Great September Comet C/1887 B1 1887 I 0.004834 144.377 281.85 +35.36 1887a Great Southern Comet C/1945 X1 1945 VII 0.007516 141.867 282.87 +35.97 1945g du Troit C/1963 R1 1963 V 0.005065 187 144.576 281.90 +35.37 1963e Pereya C/1965 S1 1965 VIII 0.007786 184 141.858 282.24 +35.21 1965f Ikeya-Seki C/1970 K1 1970 VI 0.008879 139.065 282.26 +35.07 1970f White-Ortiz-Bolelli
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