C/2015 H2 PANSTARRS
more info
Comet C/2015 H2 was discovered on 24 April 2015 with Pan-STARRS 1 telescope (Haleakala), that is about 1.4 year before its perihelion passage. Some prediscovery images of this comet were found: taken on 20 April 2015 by Polonia Observatory (San Pedro de Atacama) and 19 May 2014 by Pan-STARRS 1, Haleakala.This comet was observed until 22 October 2019 (is still observable).

Comet had its closest approach to the Earth on 26 June 2016 (4.196 au), about 2.5 months before its perihelion passage.

NG orbits using full data-arc as well as independently using pre-perihelion and post-perihelion data are determinable.

Solutions given here is based on data spanning over 5.43 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 7.96 au – 4.960 au (perihelion) – 9.52 au.

This Oort spike comet suffers moderate planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system that likely lead to escape the comet from the planetary zone on a hyperbolic orbit (see future barycentric orbits).

See also Królikowska and Dones 2023.



# END of document - 2023 August 10 - MKr
solution description
number of observations 115
data interval 2016 11 03 – 2019 10 22
data arc selection data generally limited to post-perihelion (POS)
range of heliocentric distances 4.98 au – 9.52au
detectability of NG effects in the comet's motion comet with NG effects strongly manifested in positional data fitting
type of model of motion GR - gravitational orbit
data weighting YES
number of residuals 220
RMS [arcseconds] 0.38
orbit quality class 1a
orbital elements (heliocentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 2016 09 09
perihelion date 2016 09 13.22811781 ± 0.00114664
perihelion distance [au] 4.96709569 ± 0.00000717
eccentricity 1.00322853 ± 0.00000719
argument of perihelion [°] 287.902978 ± 0.000138
ascending node [°] 350.691404 ± 0.000019
inclination [°] 33.705496 ± 0.000018
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] -649.98 ± 1.45
Upper panel: 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.
Middle panel(s): O-C diagram for a given solution (sometimes in comparison to another solution available in CODE), where residuals in right ascension are shown using magenta dots and in declination by blue open circles.
Lowest panel: Relative weights for a given data set(s).