C/1979 M1 Bradfield
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Comet C/1979 M1 was discovered on 24 June 1979 by William A. Bradfield (Dernancourt, South Australia, Australia), that is a month before its perihelion passage. This comet was last observed in late September 1979.
Comet had its closest approach to the Earth on 15 September 1979 (0.431 au), less than two months after perihelion passage.
Solutions given here are based on data spanning over 0.249 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 0.80 au – 0.413 au (perihelion) – 1.44 au.
This Oort spike comet suffers small planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system; these perturbations lead to a little more tight future orbit.
See also Królikowska 2020.

solution description
number of observations 35
data interval 1979 06 25 – 1979 09 24
data type perihelion within the observation arc (FULL)
data arc selection entire data set (STD)
range of heliocentric distances 0.8 au – 0.41 au (perihelion) – 1.44 au
detectability of NG effects in the comet's motion NG effects not determinable
type of model of motion GR - gravitational orbit
data weighting NO
number of residuals 68
RMS [arcseconds] 3.28
orbit quality class 2a
orbital elements (heliocentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 1979 07 26
perihelion date 1979 07 23.26278477 ± 0.00024435
perihelion distance [au] 0.41322054 ± 0.00000300
eccentricity 1.00005568 ± 0.00001351
argument of perihelion [°] 47.651450 ± 0.000663
ascending node [°] 164.216469 ± 0.000602
inclination [°] 136.229102 ± 0.000778
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] -134.75 ± 32.70
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.