32P/Comas Solá

32P/Comas Solá is the name of a periodic comet with a current orbital period of 8.8 years.

Discovery

32P/Comas Solá was discovered November 5, 1926 by Josep Comas Solá. As part of his work on asteroids for the Fabra Observatory (Barcelona), he was taking photographs with a telescope. The comet's past orbital evolution became a point of interest as several astronomers suggested early on that the comet might be a return of the then lost periodic comet Spitaler (aka 113P/Spitaler). In 1935 additional positions had been obtained, and P. Ramensky investigated the orbital motion back to 1911. He noted the comet passed very close to Jupiter during May of 1912 and that, prior to this approach, the comet had a perihelion distance of 2.15 AU and an orbital period of 9.43 years. The identity with comet Spitaler was thus disproven.

Trivia

The title of the early Tangerine Dream piece "Fly and Collision of Coma[s] Sola", appearing on the Alpha Centauri album (1971), refers to this comet, which at the time was undergoing a moderately close (0.73 AU) approach to Jupiter.

External links

• Kronk's Cometography: 32P/Comas Solá