C/2008 S3 Boattini
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Comet C/2008 S3 was discovered on 29 September 2008, that is 4.5 yr before perihelion passage. Later, three series of pre-discovery measurements were found: from 2007 December 18 (Mt Lemmon Survey, 12.4 au from the Sun), 2007 December 4 (Catalina Sky Survey, 11.0 au), and 2006 December 27 (Mt Lemmon Survey, 10.9 au). Each of these series consists of four measurements. Thus, data arc covers 8.6,yr in a heliocentric distance range of 12.4 au – 8.015 au (perihelion) – 11.9 au.

Comet had its closest approach to the Earth on 30 September 2011 (7.075 au, almost four months after perihelion).

This Oort spike comet suffers tiny planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system.

See also Królikowska and Dones 2023 and Królikowska and Dybczyński 2017.
solution description
number of observations 1025
data interval 2007 10 20 – 2010 03 30
data arc selection data generally limited to post-perihelion (POS)
range of heliocentric distances 8.02 au – 11.87au
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 2031
RMS [arcseconds] 0.60
orbit quality class 1a+
orbital elements (barycentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 2322 02 11
perihelion date 2011 06 07.06618298 ± 0.00224546
perihelion distance [au] 8.01507248 ± 0.00001156
eccentricity 0.99971937 ± 0.00000662
argument of perihelion [°] 40.023162 ± 0.000155
ascending node [°] 55.007179 ± 0.000054
inclination [°] 162.706647 ± 0.00001
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 35.01 ± 0.83
file containing 5001 VCs swarm
2008s3ra.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.