C/2015 X7 ATLAS
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Comet C/2015 X7 was discovered on 12 December 2015 by Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) Team, that is about 7.5 months before its perihelion passage. Some prediscovery images of this comet were found: taken on 28 January 2015 by Pan-STARRS 1, Haleakala. This comet was observed until 16 June 2017.
Comet had its closest approach to the Earth on 8 February 2017 (5.909 au); about 6 months after its perihelion passage.
Solutions given here are based on data spanning over 2.38 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 5.95 au – 3.685 au (perihelion) – 4.64 au.
This Oort spike comet suffers small planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system that lead to a more tight future orbit with a semimajor axis of about 5,000 au (see future barycentric orbits).
Comet had its closest approach to the Earth on 8 February 2017 (5.909 au); about 6 months after its perihelion passage.
Solutions given here are based on data spanning over 2.38 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 5.95 au – 3.685 au (perihelion) – 4.64 au.
This Oort spike comet suffers small planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system that lead to a more tight future orbit with a semimajor axis of about 5,000 au (see future barycentric orbits).
| solution description | ||
|---|---|---|
| number of observations | 628 | |
| data interval | 2015 01 28 – 2017 06 16 | |
| data type | perihelion within the observation arc (FULL) | |
| data arc selection | entire data set (STD) | |
| range of heliocentric distances | 5.95 au – 3.69 au (perihelion) – 4.64 au | |
| detectability of NG effects in the comet's motion | comet with determinable NG~orbit | |
| type of model of motion | GR - gravitational orbit | |
| data weighting | YES | |
| number of residuals | 1239 | |
| RMS [arcseconds] | 0.44 | |
| 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] | 25.13 – 26.39 – 26.96 | |
| previous perihelion distance [au] | 2630 – 2840 – 3330 | |
| previous aphelion distance [103 au] | 71.6 – 72.9 – 76.3 | |
| time interval to previous perihelion [Myr] | 6.95 – 7.32 – 7.74 | |
| percentage of VCs with qprev > 20 | 100 | |
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.
| 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] | 24.99 – 25.96 – 26.90 | |
| previous perihelion distance [au] | 84 – 100 – 130 | |
| previous aphelion distance [103 au] | 74.3 – 76.9 – 79.9 | |
| time interval to previous perihelion [Myr] | 7.08 – 7.46 – 7.88 | |
| percentage of VCs with qprev > 20 | 100 | |