| Discoverer | Walter Frederick Gale |
|---|---|
| Discovery date | June 7, 1927 |
| Designations | 1927 L1, 1938 L1 |
| Epoch | July 1, 1938 |
| Observation arc | Not observed in 88 years |
| Obs | 47 |
| Aphelion | 8.7 AU[1] |
| Perihelion | 1.18 AU[2] |
| Semimajor | 4.94 AU |
| Eccentricity | 0.76[1] |
| Period | 10.99 a |
| Inclination | 11.72 ° |
| Next p | 25 August 2026?[3] (Horizons) 18 November 2026?[4] (Kinoshita) |
Comet Gale is a periodic comet in the Solar System discovered by Walter Frederick Gale (Sydney, Australia) on June 7, 1927. It has not been observed in 88 years.
The second apparition was calculated for 1938, but Gale failed to find it; however, it was recalculated by Leland E. Cunningham who later recovered it for that year.
The 1949 apparition was never detected, and due to unfavourable conditions ever since it has never been recovered and it remains a lost comet.
For the 2026 perihelion passage, estimates vary by a difference of (from 25 August 2026[3] to 18 November 2026[4]). 34D/Gale is part of the Unistellar citizen science tracking project in an effort to recover a surviving fragment in outburst.[5]
References
- ^ Ley, Willy (September 1968). "Mission to a Comet". Galaxy Science Fiction. pp. 101–110.
- ^ "JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 34D/Gale". Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 1938. Retrieved 2010-02-28.
- ^ "Horizons Batch for 34D/Gale on 2026-Aug-25" (Perihelion occurs when rdot flips from negative to positive). JPL Horizons. Retrieved 2026-04-10.
- ^ K. Kinoshita (2003-06-20). "34D/Gale past, present and future orbital elements". Comet Orbit. Retrieved 2026-04-10.
- ^ "Comets Ephemeris - Unistellar Citizen Science". Unistellar. Archived 2026-05-20 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2026-05-20. (34D/Gale is 4th on the pull-down target list)