C/2006 S2 LINEAR

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C/2006 S2 LINEAR

General description

C/2006 S2 was discovered on 17 September 2006 by the LINEAR as an apparently asteroidal object. Its cometary apperance was reported by J. Young on CCD images taken on 18 September with the Table Mountain 0.61-m f/16 reflector [IAUC 8750, 2006 September 19].

This comet made its closest approach to Earth on 11 July 2007 (2.213 au), two months after perihelion.

Solution given below is based on data span over 0.83 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 3.86 au – 3.161 au (perihelion) – 3.23 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 C2006S2N2-001

Comet C/2006 S2 LINEAR

number of observations	178
number of residuals	346
data interval	2006 Sep. 17 — 2007 July 16
rms [arcsec]	0.44
orbit quality class	1b

Osculating orbital elements (heliocentric; ecliptic J2000.0)

Epoch (TT)	20070520.0	= JD 2454240.5
time of perihelion passage (TT)	20070507.356456	± 0.006086
perihelion distance	3.16144197	± 0.00000729
eccentricity	1.00206698	± 0.00001973
argument of perihelion [deg]	166.342741	± 0.001530
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	113.885818	± 0.000032
inclination [deg]	98.962277	± 0.000053
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	-653.81	± 6.24

Nongravitational parameters [10^-8 au/day²]

A₁ = 772 ± 299

A₂ = -167 ± 199

A₃ = 0.0 (assumed)

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 S2. 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)	17040727
time of perihelion passage (TT)	20070508.028917	± 0.003363
perihelion distance	3.15839357	± 0.00001988
eccentricity	0.99977096	± 0.00002572
argument of perihelion [deg]	166.480582	± 0.000797
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	113.906396	± 0.000032
inclination [deg]	99.006662	± 0.000054
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	72.52	± 8.14

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)	23090318
time of perihelion passage (TT)	20070507.460166	± 0.009306
perihelion distance	3.15535756	± 0.00001606
eccentricity	1.00003397	± 0.00005708
argument of perihelion [deg]	166.235774	± 0.002563
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	113.952733	± 0.000032
inclination [deg]	98.991350	± 0.000056
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	-10.77	± 18.09