C/2006 S3 LONEOS
more info
Comet C/2006 S3 was discovered on 19 November 2006 by LONEOS at heliocentric dostance of 14.3 au as an object with cometary apperance and soon a few prediscovery observations taken by Catalina Sky Survey on 17 September 2006 were found [IAUC 8752, 2006 September 21]. Later, more prediscovery observations were reported (taken on 29 August 2006 and 13 October 1999). Comet passed perihelion in mid-April 2012 and since its discovery was observed during many consecutive oppositions (see figure). In August 2023, data arc extends up to 24 January 2020 and are available at MPC.

Solutions given here are based on data covered 26.1 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 26.1 au – 5.131 au (perihelion) – 19.8 au.

Comet had its closest approach to the Earth on 1 June 2012 (4.141 au, 1.5 months after perihelion).

NG orbits are determinable, however some trends in residuals with time are still visible.

This Oort spike comet suffers slight planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system; however, they lead to escape of the comet from the solar system on hiperbolic orbit (see future barycentric orbit).

See also Królikowska and Dones 2023 and Królikowska and Dybczyński 2017.
solution description
number of observations 6480
data interval 1999 10 13 – 2016 05 05
data type perihelion within the observation arc (FULL)
data arc selection entire data set (STD)
range of heliocentric distances 26.14 au – 5.13 au (perihelion) – 11.38 au
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 12847
RMS [arcseconds] 0.61
orbit quality class 1a+
orbital elements (barycentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 2317 02 04
perihelion date 2012 04 15.07584301 ± 0.00007057
perihelion distance [au] 5.13283752 ± 0.00000027
eccentricity 1.00023378 ± 0.00000064
argument of perihelion [°] 140.120834 ± 0.000012
ascending node [°] 38.447639 ± 0.000010
inclination [°] 166.034237 ± 0.000003
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] -45.55 ± 0.12
file containing 5001 VCs swarm
2006s3a6.bpl
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).
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.