Solar System
Dynamics &
Planetology
Group 		C/2006 P1 McNaught


SSDP Cometary Note C2006P1N5-001

Comet C/2006 P1 McNaught

number of observations 341
number of residuals 641
data interval 2006 Aug. 7 — 2007 July 11
rms [arcsec] 0.25
orbit quality class 1b

Osculating orbital elements (heliocentric; ecliptic J2000.0)

Epoch (TT) 20070120.0 = JD 2454120.5
time of perihelion passage (TT) 20070112.798838 ± 0.000024
perihelion distance 0.17073161 ± 0.00000031
eccentricity 1.00001723 ± 0.00000119
argument of perihelion[deg] 155.975453 ± 0.000077
longitude of the ascending node [deg] 267.415065 ± 0.000025
inclination[deg] 77.837245 ± 0.000025
inverse semimajor axis [10-6 au-1] -100.92 ± 6.99

Nongravitational parameters [10-8 au/day2] A1 = 0.1329 ± 0.0335 A2 = 0.03138 ± 0.00397 A3 = 0.0 (assumed)

Note: Epoch is given in a format: yyyymmdd.d, time of perihelion passage in a format of yyyymmdd.dddddd. This comet was the second brightest comet observed by ground-based observers since 1935 and demonstrated a spectacularly structured huge dust tail. It might be surprising that in case of such an active comet with extremely small perihelion distance it was possible to obtain a very well determined, standard nongravitational orbit from the whole data set. More details in Królikowska and Dybczyński, 2013.

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

Epoch (TT) 17090919.0
time of perihelion passage (TT) 20070112.337643 ± 0.000032
perihelion distance 0.17003705 ± 0.00000048
eccentricity 0.99999028 ± 0.00000068
argument of perihelion[deg] 155.996155 ± 0.000090
longitude of the ascending node [deg] 267.457817 ± 0.000026
inclination[deg] 77.653337 ± 0.000026
inverse semimajor axis [10-6 au-1] 57.17 ± 4.03

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) 23090206.0
time of perihelion passage (TT) 20070113.193081 ± 0.000040
perihelion distance 0.17216685 ± 0.00000034
eccentricity 0.99991949 ± 0.00000061
argument of perihelion[deg] 156.045829 ± 0.000050
longitude of the ascending node [deg] 267.260532 ± 0.000020
inclination[deg] 78.000239 ± 0.000025
inverse semimajor axis [10-6 au-1] 467.65 ± 3.56


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





Solar System Dynamics & Planetology Group, 2013. All rights reserved

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