C/1954 O2 Baade
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Comet C/1954 O2 was discovered on 31 July 1954, about one year before perihelion passage, and was last seen on 26 November 1957 [Kronk, Cometography: Volume 4].
The comet made its closest approach to the Earth on 15 December 1955 (3.07 au), four months after perihelion passage.
Solution given here is based on data spanning over 3.3 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 4.98 au – 3.87 au (perihelion) – 7.75 au.
This Oort spike comet suffers small planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system that lead to a tighter future orbit (see original and future barycentric orbits).
See also Królikowska and Dybczyński 2017.

solution description
number of observations 87
data interval 1954 08 10 – 1957 11 26
data type perihelion within the observation arc (FULL)
data arc selection entire data set (STD)
range of heliocentric distances 4.98 au – 3.87 au (perihelion) – 7.75 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 156
RMS [arcseconds] 1.19
orbit quality class 1a
orbital elements (barycentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 2261 10 15
perihelion date 1955 08 13.09951131 ± 0.00136847
perihelion distance [au] 3.86565432 ± 0.00000597
eccentricity 0.99901175 ± 0.00001524
argument of perihelion [°] 144.529391 ± 0.000217
ascending node [°] 265.271988 ± 0.000059
inclination [°] 100.39904 ± 0.000059
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 255.65 ± 3.94
file containing 5001 VCs swarm
1954o2a5.bpl
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.
Six 2D-projections of the 6D space of future swarm including 5001 VCs. Each density map is given in logarithmic scale presented on the right in the individual panel.