C/2017 E3 PANSTARRS
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Comet C/2017 E3 was discovered on 7 March 2017 with Pan-STARRS 1 telescope (Haleakala), that is about 3 months before its perihelion passage. Later, it was found on a series of earlier images going back to December 2013. This comet was observed until 20 June 2020.

Comet had its closest approach to the Earth on 24 April 2017 (3.480 au), about 1.5 month after discovery and more than a month before its perihelion passage.

Solutions given here are based on data spanning over 6.51 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 10.28 au   5.915 au (perihelion)   9.53 au (July 2023).

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).

See also Królikowska and Dones 2023.
solution description
number of observations 480
data interval 2017 06 05 – 2020 06 20
data arc selection data generally limited to post-perihelion (POS)
range of heliocentric distances 5.9 au – 9.53au
detectability of NG effects in the comet's motion NG effects not determinable
type of model of motion GR - gravitational orbit
data weighting YES
number of residuals 943
RMS [arcseconds] 0.61
orbit quality class 1a
orbital elements (heliocentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 2017 06 16
perihelion date 2017 05 31.57540002 ± 0.00142131
perihelion distance [au] 5.91525793 ± 0.00000765
eccentricity 1.00498658 ± 0.00000644
argument of perihelion [°] 333.663842 ± 0.000137
ascending node [°] 220.758578 ± 0.000008
inclination [°] 70.665055 ± 0.000021
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] -843.00 ± 1.09
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.