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 91
data interval 2013 10 23 – 2016 09 07
data arc selection data generally limited to pre-perihelion (PRE)
range of heliocentric distances 7.96 au – 4.97au
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 175
RMS [arcseconds] 0.29
orbit quality class 1a
previous orbit statistics, both Galactic and stellar perturbations were taken into account
no. of returning VCs in the swarm 5001 *
no. of escaping VCs in the swarm 0
no. of hyperbolas among escaping VCs in the swarm 0
previous reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 45.24 – 47.06 – 48.92
previous perihelion distance [au] 210 – 290 – 360
previous aphelion distance [103 au] 40.7 – 42.2 – 43.8
time interval to previous perihelion [Myr] 3.01 – 3.18 – 3.37
percentage of VCs with qprev > 20100
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).
previous orbit statistics, here only the Galactic tide has been included
no. of returning VCs in the swarm 5001 *
no. of escaping VCs in the swarm 0
no. of hyperbolas among escaping VCs in the swarm 0
previous reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 44.76 – 46.43 – 48.06
previous perihelion distance [au] 8.7 – 9.3 – 10
previous aphelion distance [103 au] 41.6 – 43.1 – 44.7
time interval to previous perihelion [Myr] 3 – 3.16 – 3.33
percentage of VCs with qprev < 1089
percentage of VCs with 10 < qprev < 2011