C/2003 O1 LINEAR
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Comet C/2003 O1 was discovered on 19 July 2003 in the course of the LINEAR survey as an apparently asteroidal object (7.03 au from the Sun); however, soon its cometary activity were announced. Later, three prediscovery images were found from 27 July 2002 (7.88 au from the Sun). At the moment of discovery, it was 8 months before perihelion passage and a less than two weeks before its closest approach to the Earth.
Comet had its closest approach to the Earth on 30 July 2003 (6.447 au, 11 days after discovery, 7.5 months before perihelion); hovever at the second approach to the Earth in June 2004 (almost a year after perihelion passage) the comet was similarly close (6.455 au, see figure).
Solution given here is based on data spanning over 3.6 yr (5 oppositions) in a range of heliocentric distances: 7.88 au – 6.847 au (perihelion) – 7.19 au.
This comet suffers almost insignificant planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system.
See also Królikowska and Dybczyński 2017.

solution description
number of observations 576
data interval 2002 07 27 – 2006 02 25
data type perihelion within the observation arc (FULL)
data arc selection entire data set (STD)
range of heliocentric distances 7.88 au – 6.85 au (perihelion) – 7.19 au
detectability of NG effects in the comet's motion NG effects not determinable
type of model of motion GR - gravitational orbit
data weighting YES
number of residuals 1132
RMS [arcseconds] 0.53
orbit quality class 1a+
orbital elements (heliocentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 2004 03 16
perihelion date 2004 03 17.20536914 ± 0.00132639
perihelion distance [au] 6.84737543 ± 0.00000627
eccentricity 1.00154618 ± 0.00000557
argument of perihelion [°] 81.673255 ± 0.000100
ascending node [°] 347.643862 ± 0.000018
inclination [°] 117.981596 ± 0.000009
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] -225.81 ± 0.81
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.