C/1988 B1 Shoemaker
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Comet C/1988 B1 was discovered by Carolyn S. and Eugene M. Shoemaker (with the 0.46-m Schmidt telescope at Palomar) on 23 January 1988 (IAUC 4547), when the comet was ten months after its perihelion passage. The comet was last seen on 6 January 1992.
The comet made its close approach to the Earth on 4 February 1988 (4.68 au), that was twelve days after its discovery. Slightly deeper close approach to the Earth was in the previous opposition (not observed) when the comet was within 4.62 au from the Earth (12 February 1987, about five weeks before perihelion passage).
Solution given here is based on data spanning over 4.0 yr in a range of heliocentric distances from 5.55 au to 12.85 au.
This Oort spike comet suffers small planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system that lead to escape of the comet from the solar system (see future barycentric orbit).
See also Królikowska 2014 and Królikowska and Dybczyński 2017.

solution description
number of observations 66
data interval 1988 01 23 – 1992 01 06
data type observed only after perihelion (POST)
data arc selection entire data set (STD)
range of heliocentric distances 5.55 au – 12.9au
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 127
RMS [arcseconds] 0.98
orbit quality class 1a
orbital elements (barycentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 2291 02 20
perihelion date 1987 03 19.91998800 ± 0.00903900
perihelion distance [au] 5.03103521 ± 0.00007221
eccentricity 1.00054965 ± 0.00003515
argument of perihelion [°] 124.175688 ± 0.001327
ascending node [°] 325.180830 ± 0.000038
inclination [°] 80.574313 ± 0.000138
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] -109.25 ± 6.99
file containing 5001 VCs swarm
1988b1a1.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.