C/2017 F2 PANSTARRS
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Comet C/2017 F2 was discovered on 31 March 2017 with Pan-STARRS 1 telescope (Haleakala), that is about 8 months before its perihelion passage. This comet was rarely observed until 6 March 2019.

Comet had its closest approach to the Earth on 31 March 2018 (6.070 au), about 4 months after its perihelion passage.

The preferred solution given here is based on data spanning over 1.93 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 7.10 au – 6.928 au (perihelion) – 7.56 au.

This Oort spike comet suffers moderate planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system; these perturbations lead to escape the comet from the planetary zone on a hyperbolic orbit (see future barycentric orbits).
solution description
number of observations 62
data interval 2017 03 31 – 2018 12 12
data type perihelion within the observation arc (FULL)
data arc selection entire data set (STD)
range of heliocentric distances 7.1 au – 6.93 au (perihelion) – 7.35 au
detectability of NG effects in the comet's motion NG effects not determinable
type of model of motion GR - gravitational orbit
data weighting NO
number of residuals 112
RMS [arcseconds] 0.37
orbit quality class 1a
orbital elements (barycentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 2322 07 28
perihelion date 2017 11 26.90857228 ± 0.00763766
perihelion distance [au] 6.92194991 ± 0.00002109
eccentricity 1.00222639 ± 0.00002093
argument of perihelion [°] 134.912722 ± 0.000560
ascending node [°] 38.611930 ± 0.000065
inclination [°] 42.514343 ± 0.000035
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] -321.64 ± 3.02
file containing 5001 VCs swarm
2017f2b1.bpl
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.
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.