C/1998 M3 Larsen
more info
Comet C/1998 M3 was discovered by J. Larsen on 24 June 1998 (less than a month before perihelion passage) but prediscovery observations made by LINEAR were found in images taken on 26 May.
Comet had its closest approach to the Earth on 31 May 1998 (4.805 au, almost a month before its discovery), and was observed 1.1 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 5.78 au – 5.77 au (perihelion) – 6.24 au.
This comet suffers slight planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system that lead to a more tight future orbit (see future barycentric orbit).
See also Królikowska and Dybczyński 2017.

solution description
number of observations 110
data interval 1998 05 26 – 1999 06 14
data type perihelion within the observation arc (FULL)
data arc selection entire data set (STD)
range of heliocentric distances 5.78 au – 5.77 au (perihelion) – 6.24 au
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 219
RMS [arcseconds] 0.66
orbit quality class 1b
orbital elements (barycentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 2307 06 17
perihelion date 1998 07 15.57888017 ± 0.01466309
perihelion distance [au] 5.77023651 ± 0.00003995
eccentricity 0.99881653 ± 0.00003252
argument of perihelion [°] 20.705550 ± 0.001480
ascending node [°] 255.482996 ± 0.000071
inclination [°] 113.451985 ± 0.000109
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 205.10 ± 5.64
file containing 5001 VCs swarm
1998m3a5.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.