C/2010 D3

Solar System
Dynamics &
Planetology
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C/2010 D3 WISE

General description

C/2010 D3 was discovered in images from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite on 26 February 2010.

This comet made its closest approach to Earth on 7 June 2010 (4.070 au), 3.5 months before perihelion.

Solution given below is based on data span over 3.3 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 4.54 au – 4.248 au (perihelion) – 8.80 au.

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 C2010D3A5-001

Comet C/2010 D3 WISE

number of observations	97
number of residuals	187
data interval	2010 Feb. 24 — 2013 June 11
rms [arcsec]	0.52
orbit quality class	1a

Osculating orbital elements (heliocentric; ecliptic J2000.0)

Epoch (TT)	20100901.0	= JD 2455440.5
time of perihelion passage (TT)	20100903.915130	± 0.001010
perihelion distance	4.24752343	± 0.00000425
eccentricity	0.99956603	± 0.00000490
argument of perihelion [deg]	304.641320	± 0.000134
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	255.238093	± 0.000010
inclination [deg]	76.391671	± 0.000022
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	102.17	± 1.15

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/2010 D3. 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)	17060826
time of perihelion passage (TT)	20100904.080190	± 0.001039
perihelion distance	4.24846025	± 0.00000438
eccentricity	0.99991442	± 0.00000502
argument of perihelion [deg]	304.623984	± 0.000137
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	255.242399	± 0.000010
inclination [deg]	76.358086	± 0.000022
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	20.14	± 1.18

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)	23161007
time of perihelion passage (TT)	20100904.425117	± 0.001013
perihelion distance	4.24461582	± 0.00000435
eccentricity	0.99919099	± 0.00000502
argument of perihelion [deg]	304.568634	± 0.000138
longitude of the ascending node [deg]	255.203753	± 0.000010
inclination [deg]	76.374021	± 0.000023
inverse semimajor axis [10^-6 au^-1]	190.60	± 1.18