C/2015 O1 PANSTARRS
more info


Comet C/2015 O1 was discovered on 19 July 2015 with Pan-STARRS 1 telescope (Haleakala), that is about  months after its perihelion passage.

Some prediscovery images of this comet were found: taken on 15 and 17 of June 2015 by Space Surveillance Telescope (Atom Site).

Solutions given here are based on data spanning over 4.76 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 8.65 au – 3.730 au (perihelion) – 7.28 au.

NG orbits using full data-arc as well as independently using pre-perihelion and post-perihelion data are determinable.

See also Królikowska and Dones 2023.
solution description
number of observations 4142
data interval 2015 06 15 – 2020 03 20
data type perihelion within the observation arc (FULL)
data arc selection entire data set (STD)
range of heliocentric distances 8.65 au – 3.73 au (perihelion) – 7.28 au
type of model of motion NS - non-gravitational orbits for standard g(r)
data weighting YES
number of residuals 8242
RMS [arcseconds] 0.51
orbit quality class 1a+
orbital elements (barycentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 2322 07 28
perihelion date 2018 02 18.31538532 ± 0.00014850
perihelion distance [au] 3.72759301 ± 0.00000115
eccentricity 0.99952543 ± 0.00000149
argument of perihelion [°] 89.509227 ± 0.000031
ascending node [°] 299.860638 ± 0.000007
inclination [°] 127.162481 ± 0.000004
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 127.31 ± 0.40
file containing 5001 VCs swarm
2015o1bn.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.