C/2006 S3 old solution

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C/2006 S3 LONEOS

General description

Comet C/2006 S3 was discovered on 19 November 2006 by LONEOS at heliocentric dostance of 14.3 au as an object with cometary apperance and soon a few prediscovery observations taken by Catalina Sky Survey on 17 September 2006 were found [IAUC 8752, 2006 September 21]. Later, more prediscovery observations were reported (taken on 29 August 2006 and 13 October 1999). Comet passed perihelion in mid-April 2012 (see below) and since its discovery was observed during eleven consecutive oppositions.

Comet had its closest approach to Earth on 1 June 2012 (4.141 au, 1.5 months after perihelion).

C/2006 S3 suffered a very slight planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system, however these perturbations can lead to the future escape of the comet from the solar system.

Solution given below is based on observations taken prior to 2013 July 29 (only prediscovery data from August 29 were then available) and neglected non-gravitational effects. Non-gravitational solution based on much longer observational arc is available here.

SSDP Cometary Note C2006S3A5-001 – older solution

Comet C/2006 S3 LONEOS

number of observations	5354
number of residuals	10589
data interval	2006 Aug. 29 — 2013 July 29
rms [arcsec]	0.50
orbit quality class	1a+

Osculating orbital elements (heliocentric; ecliptic J2000.0)

Epoch (TT)	20120423.0	= JD 2456040.5
time of perihelion passage (TT)	20120416.331021	± 0.000113
perihelion distance	5.13114696	± 0.00000061
eccentricity	1.00351254	± 0.00000083
argument of perihelion [deg]	140.130169	± 0.000016
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	38.370805	± 0.000011
inclination [deg]	166.032646	± 0.000003
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	-684.55	± 0.16

Note: Epoch is given in a format: yyyymmdd.d, time of perihelion passage in a format of yyyymmdd.dddddd.

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

Epoch (TT)	17061114
time of perihelion passage (TT)	20120415.863838	± 0.000113
perihelion distance	5.13372946	± 0.00000053
eccentricity	0.99997163	± 0.00000083
argument of perihelion [deg]	140.028609	± 0.000016
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	38.303879	± 0.000011
inclination [deg]	166.015371	± 0.000003
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	5.53	± 0.16

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)	23170316
time of perihelion passage (TT)	20120415.080141	± 0.000111
perihelion distance	5.13281311	± 0.00000064
eccentricity	1.00020156	± 0.00000083
argument of perihelion [deg]	140.121259	± 0.000016
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	38.447592	± 0.000011
inclination [deg]	166.034249	± 0.000003
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	-39.27	± 0.16