C/2013 US10 Catalina
more info
Comet C/2013 US10 was discovered on 31 October 2013 by R.A. Kowalski (Catalina Sky Survey), that is more than two years before perihelion passage. Later, series of pre-discovery measurements dating back to 2013 August 14 were found. This comet was intensively observed until 7 December 2017.C/2013 US10 had two close approaches to the Earth on 14 August 2015 (1.09 au, two months before perihelion) and on 17 January 2016 (0.725 au, two months after perihelion).
This is a comet with NG effects strongly manifested in positional data fitting. Solutions 'a5' and 'n5' (preferred) are based on data spanning over 4.3 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 8.92 au – 0.823 au (perihelion) – 8.36 au.
This Oort spike comet suffers moderate planetary perturbations while passing through the planetary system; these perturbations lead to escape the comet from the planetary zone on a hyperbolic orbit (see future barycentric orbits) in all orbital solutions given here except the NG solution based on pre-perihelion leg of orbit; however in this case the radial NG parameter is negative ('solution 'pn'). It is worth pointing out that the comet shows some tiny signs of the influence of NG effects on its orbit on the preperihelion leg at heliocentric distances larger than 3 au (solution 'pc').
This is a comet with NG effects strongly manifested in positional data fitting. Solutions 'a5' and 'n5' (preferred) are based on data spanning over 4.3 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 8.92 au – 0.823 au (perihelion) – 8.36 au.
This Oort spike comet suffers moderate planetary perturbations while passing through the planetary system; these perturbations lead to escape the comet from the planetary zone on a hyperbolic orbit (see future barycentric orbits) in all orbital solutions given here except the NG solution based on pre-perihelion leg of orbit; however in this case the radial NG parameter is negative ('solution 'pn'). It is worth pointing out that the comet shows some tiny signs of the influence of NG effects on its orbit on the preperihelion leg at heliocentric distances larger than 3 au (solution 'pc').
solution description | ||
---|---|---|
number of observations | 1921 | |
data interval | 2013 08 14 – 2015 10 11 | |
data arc selection | data generally limited to pre-perihelion (PRE) | |
range of heliocentric distances | 8.92 au – 1.06au | |
type of model of motion | NS - non-gravitational orbits for standard g(r) | |
data weighting | YES | |
number of residuals | 3681 | |
RMS [arcseconds] | 0.37 | |
orbit quality class | 1b |
orbital elements (heliocentric ecliptic J2000) | ||
---|---|---|
Epoch | 2015 12 04 | |
perihelion date | 2015 11 15.73523771 | ± 0.00142948 |
perihelion distance [au] | 0.82272705 | ± 0.00002373 |
eccentricity | 0.99926084 | ± 0.00009703 |
argument of perihelion [°] | 340.386534 | ± 0.003078 |
ascending node [°] | 186.142472 | ± 0.000272 |
inclination [°] | 148.879366 | ± 0.000087 |
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] | 898.43 | ± 117.95 |

Upper panel: 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.
Middle panel(s): O-C diagram for a given solution (sometimes in comparison to another solution available in CODE), where residuals in right ascension are shown using magenta dots and in declination by blue open circles.
Lowest panel: Relative weights for a given data set(s).
Middle panel(s): O-C diagram for a given solution (sometimes in comparison to another solution available in CODE), where residuals in right ascension are shown using magenta dots and in declination by blue open circles.
Lowest panel: Relative weights for a given data set(s).
non-gravitational parameters | ||
---|---|---|
A1 [10-8au/day2] | -0.40344 | ± 0.20397 |
A2 [10-8au/day2] | -8.2759 | ± 0.7922 |
A3 [10-8au/day2] | 0.69413 | ± 0.0763 |
m | -2.15 | |
n | 5.093 | |
k | -4.6142 | |
r0 [au] | 2.808 | |
α | 0.1113 |