C/2005 Q1 LINEAR

Solar System
Dynamics &
Planetology
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C/2005 Q1 LINEAR

General description

C/2005 Q1 was discovered on 27 August 2005 by the LINEAR as an apparently asteroidal object. At once its cometary apperance was reported by several observers [IAUC 8590, 2005 August 29].

This comet made its closest approaches to Earth on 16 December 2004 (5.739 au, eight months before perihelion) and 23 November 2005 (5.856 au, 3 months after perihelion).

Solution given below is based on data span over 2.1 yr in a range of heliocentric distances from 6.41 au to 8.25 au.

Comet suffered a small planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system.

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 C2005Q1_W-001

Comet C/2005 Q1 LINEAR

number of observations	161
number of residuals	309
data interval	2005 Aug. 27 — 2007 Oct. 16
rms [arcsec]	0.48
orbit quality class	1a

Osculating orbital elements (heliocentric; ecliptic J2000.0)

Epoch (TT)	20050818.0	= JD 2453600.5
time of perihelion passage (TT)	20050825.529483	± 0.003554
perihelion distance	6.40841016	± 0.00001266
eccentricity	1.00447731	± 0.00001322
argument of perihelion [deg]	44.691595	± 0.000311
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	87.727459	± 0.000045
inclination [deg]	105.188309	± 0.000033
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	-698.66	± 2.06

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/2005 Q1. 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)	16971120
time of perihelion passage (TT)	20050826.530305	± 0.003639
perihelion distance	6.39876801	± 0.00001266
eccentricity	0.99985473	± 0.00001307
argument of perihelion [deg]	44.829145	± 0.000317
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	87.678330	± 0.000045
inclination [deg]	105.254459	± 0.000033
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	22.70	± 2.04

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)	23120411
time of perihelion passage (TT)	20050824.863594	± 0.003613
perihelion distance	6.40857612	± 0.00001269
eccentricity	1.00049664	± 0.00001311
argument of perihelion [deg]	44.604432	± 0.000316
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	87.698097	± 0.000045
inclination [deg]	105.212368	± 0.000033
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	-77.50	± 2.05