C/2002 A3 LINEAR

Solar System
Dynamics &
Planetology
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C/2002 A3 LINEAR

General description

C/2002 A3 was discovered on 13 January 2002 by the LINEAR as an apparently asteroidal object. Soon, its cometary apperance was reported [IAUC 7799, 2002 January 21].

This comet made its closest approach to Earth on 12 January 2002 (4.395 au), 3.3 months before perihelion.

Solution given below is based on data span over 1.4 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 5.21 au – 5.151 au (perihelion) – 6.05 au.

C/2002 A3 had close encounter with Jupiter on 22 January 2003 (0.502 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 C2002A3A2-001

Comet C/2002 A3 LINEAR

number of observations	291
number of residuals	573
data interval	2002 Jan. 13 — 2003 June 24
rms [arcsec]	0.49
orbit quality class	1a

Osculating orbital elements (heliocentric; ecliptic J2000.0)

Epoch (TT)	20020506.0	= JD 2452400.5
time of perihelion passage (TT)	20020424.397426	± 0.003120
perihelion distance	5.15143918	± 0.00000756
eccentricity	1.00791266	± 0.00000927
argument of perihelion [deg]	329.479955	± 0.000348
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	136.550845	± 0.000010
inclination [deg]	48.039047	± 0.000017
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	-1536.01	± 1.79

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/2002 A3. 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)	16960906
time of perihelion passage (TT)	20020425.196888	± 0.003135
perihelion distance	5.14305257	± 0.00000772
eccentricity	0.99989342	± 0.00000939
argument of perihelion [deg]	329.552549	± 0.000350
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	136.668883	± 0.000010
inclination [deg]	48.065967	± 0.000017
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	20.72	± 1.83

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)	24491208
time of perihelion passage (TT)	20020419.461060	± 0.003121
perihelion distance	5.14743062	± 0.00000811
eccentricity	0.96822207	± 0.00000991
argument of perihelion [deg]	329.358358	± 0.000346
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	136.410260	± 0.000010
inclination [deg]	48.563937	± 0.000018
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	6173.55	± 1.93