C/2012 S3 PANSTARRS
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Comet C/2012 S3 was discovered on 27 September 2012 with Pan-STARRS 1 telescope (Haleakala), that is 11 months before its perihelion passage. It was observed until 4 April 2014 (see picture).
C/2012 S3 had its closest approach to the Earth on 1 August 2013 (1.338 au), about a month before its perihelion passage.
Solutions given here are based on data spanning over 1.52 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 4.25 au – 2.308 au (perihelion) – 3.30 au.
This Oort spike comet suffers rather small planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system that cause a tighter future orbit (see future barycentric orbits).
C/2012 S3 had its closest approach to the Earth on 1 August 2013 (1.338 au), about a month before its perihelion passage.
Solutions given here are based on data spanning over 1.52 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 4.25 au – 2.308 au (perihelion) – 3.30 au.
This Oort spike comet suffers rather small planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system that cause a tighter future orbit (see future barycentric orbits).
| solution description | ||
|---|---|---|
| number of observations | 749 | |
| data interval | 2012 09 27 – 2014 04 04 | |
| data type | significantly more measurements before perihelion (PRE+) | |
| data arc selection | entire data set (STD) | |
| range of heliocentric distances | 4.25 au – 2.31 au (perihelion) – 3.3 au | |
| type of model of motion | NS - non-gravitational orbits for standard g(r) | |
| data weighting | YES | |
| number of residuals | 1457 | |
| RMS [arcseconds] | 0.38 | |
| orbit quality class | 1a | |
| previous orbit statistics, both Galactic and stellar perturbations were taken into account | ||
|---|---|---|
| no. of returning VCs in the swarm | 5001 | * |
| no. of escaping VCs in the swarm | 0 | |
| no. of hyperbolas among escaping VCs in the swarm | 0 | |
| previous reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] | 38.42 – 40.01 – 41.59 | |
| previous perihelion distance [au] | 573 – 643 – 701 | |
| previous aphelion distance [103 au] | 47.5 – 49.3 – 51.4 | |
| time interval to previous perihelion [Myr] | 3.74 – 3.96 – 4.2 | |
| percentage of VCs with qprev > 20 | 100 | |
Time distribution of positional observations with corresponding heliocentric (red curve) and geocentric (green curve) distance at which they were taken. The horizontal dotted line shows the perihelion distance for a given comet whereas vertical dotted line — the moment of perihelion passage.
| previous orbit statistics, here only the Galactic tide has been included | ||
|---|---|---|
| no. of returning VCs in the swarm | 5001 | * |
| no. of escaping VCs in the swarm | 0 | |
| no. of hyperbolas among escaping VCs in the swarm | 0 | |
| previous reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] | 38.84 – 40.33 – 41.78 | |
| previous perihelion distance [au] | 4.9 – 5.7 – 6.7 | |
| previous aphelion distance [103 au] | 47.9 – 49.6 – 51.5 | |
| time interval to previous perihelion [Myr] | 3.69 – 3.89 – 4.12 | |
| percentage of VCs with qprev < 10 | 100 | |