C/2010 U3 Boattini
more info
Comet C/2010 U3 was discovered on 31 October 2010. Several prediscovery images of this comet were found: taken at Mauna Kea on 18 and 30 October 2006 and 5 November 2005. At the moment of discovery, it was more than 8 years before its perihelion passage (see figure). In August 2023, data arc extends up to 15 April 2023 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 27 January 2019 (7.929 au, one  months before perihelion).

Solutions given here are based on a set of data spanning over by 15.36 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 25.75 au  au – 8.446 au (perihelion) – 9.52 au (June 2023).

Some signs of NG acceleration in the motion of this comet are seen.

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

See also Królikowska and Dones 2023.
solution description
number of observations 2481
data interval 2005 11 05 – 2021 03 18
data type perihelion within the observation arc (FULL)
data arc selection entire data set (STD)
range of heliocentric distances 25.75 au – 8.45 au (perihelion) – 8.68 au
type of model of motion NC - non-gravitational orbits for symmetric CO-g(r)-like function
data weighting YES
number of residuals 4912
RMS [arcseconds] 0.58
orbit quality class 1a+
orbital elements (barycentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 1707 05 13
perihelion date 2019 02 26.26611459 ± 0.00218195
perihelion distance [au] 8.44822784 ± 0.00001271
eccentricity 0.99948294 ± 0.00000422
argument of perihelion [°] 88.077309 ± 0.000138
ascending node [°] 43.035378 ± 0.000007
inclination [°] 55.480187 ± 0.000004
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 61.20 ± 0.50
file containing 5001 VCs swarm
2010u3ec.bmi
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 original swarm including 5001 VCs. Each density map is given in logarithmic scale presented on the right in the individual panel.