C/2006 E1 McNaught

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C/2006 E1 McNaught

General description

C/2006 K1 was discovered on 11 March 2006 by R. H. McNaught on the Siding Spring Survey images taken with the 0.5-m Uppsala Schmidt telescope [IAUC 8688, 2006 March 16].

This comet made its closest approach to Earth on 3 July 2006 (5.382 au), six months before perihelion.

Solution given below is based on data span over 3.0 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 6.39 au – 6.041 au (perihelion) – 8.07 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 C2006E1A2-001

Comet C/2006 E1 McNaught

number of observations	143
number of residuals	282
data interval	2006 Mar. 11 — 2009 Mar. 3
rms [arcsec]	0.65
orbit quality class	1a

Osculating orbital elements (heliocentric; ecliptic J2000.0)

Epoch (TT)	20070120.0	= JD 2454120.5
time of perihelion passage (TT)	20070106.507436	± 0.002770
perihelion distance	6.04057919	± 0.00001081
eccentricity	1.00121653	± 0.00001344
argument of perihelion [deg]	232.779293	± 0.000228
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	95.034571	± 0.000037
inclination [deg]	83.193442	± 0.000049
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	-201.39	± 2.22

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/2006 E1. 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)	16991001
time of perihelion passage (TT)	20070106.056920	± 0.002773
perihelion distance	6.03607650	± 0.00001088
eccentricity	0.99980395	± 0.00001350
argument of perihelion [deg]	232.838489	± 0.000230
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	95.075848	± 0.000036
inclination [deg]	83.188779	± 0.000048
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	32.48	± 2.24

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)	23130625
time of perihelion passage (TT)	20070106.081932	± 0.002793
perihelion distance	6.03851059	± 0.00001093
eccentricity	1.00026161	± 0.00001350
argument of perihelion [deg]	232.757255	± 0.000230
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	95.076335	± 0.000036
inclination [deg]	83.187785	± 0.000048
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	-43.32	± 2.24