C/1976 U1 Lovas

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Planetology
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C/1976 U1 Lovas

General description

Comet C/1976 U1 was discovered on 27 October 1976, 3.7 months after its perihelion passage, and was last seen on 10 February 1978 [Kronk and Meyer, Cometography: Volume 5].

This comet made its closest approach to the Earth on 1 January 1977 (5.33 au), two months after discovery.

Solution given below is based on data span over 1.22 yr in a range of heliocentric distances from 5.94 au to 7.14 au.

Figure caption: 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.

SSDP Cometary Note C1976U1A1-001

Comet C/1976 U1 Lovas

number of observations	30
number of residuals	60
data interval	1976 Nov. 22 — 1978 Feb. 10
rms [arcsec]	1.69
orbit quality class	1b

Osculating orbital elements (heliocentric; ecliptic J2000.0)

Epoch (TT)	19760701.0	= JD 2442960.5
time of perihelion passage (TT)	19760706.362248	± 0.036083
perihelion distance	5.85727320	± 0.00014296
eccentricity	1.00388129	± 0.00012609
argument of perihelion [deg]	118.787189	± 0.003919
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	286.037188	± 0.000293
inclination [deg]	86.631909	± 0.000358
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	-662.65	± 21.51

Note: Epoch is given in a format: yyyymmdd.d, time of perihelion passage in a format of yyyymmdd.dddddd.

Figure caption: Six 2D-projections of the 6D space of original swarm (5001 VCs) of C/1976 U1. Each density map is given in logarithmic scale presented on the right in the individual panel.
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Original orbital elements (barycentric; at 250 au from the Sun)

Epoch (TT)	16690531
time of perihelion passage (TT)	19760706.996700	± 0.035841
perihelion distance	5.85519975	± 0.00014134
eccentricity	0.99973363	± 0.00012792
argument of perihelion [deg]	118.864652	± 0.003893
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	286.024042	± 0.000293
inclination [deg]	86.663827	± 0.000353
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	45.49	± 21.85

Note: Values of uncertainties of original/future orbital elements were derived using a swarm of 5001 osculating orbits of VCs (including the nominal osculating orbit given above) for original/future orbital evolution calclulations and then by fitting the distribution of a given orbital element of original/future swarm of VCs to Gaussian distribution.

Original barycentric positions and velocities of 5001 VCs at 250 au from the Sun are given here (data format), i.e. before entering the planetary zone.

Future orbital elements (barycentric; at 250 au from the Sun)

Epoch (TT)	22850611
time of perihelion passage (TT)	19760707.800353	± 0.036004
perihelion distance	5.85826685	± 0.00014138
eccentricity	0.99884526	± 0.00012806
argument of perihelion [deg]	118.887188	± 0.003900
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	286.007941	± 0.000292
inclination [deg]	86.681367	± 0.000352
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	197.11	± 21.86