C/2017 AB5 PANSTARRS
more info
Comet C/2017 AB5 was discovered on 3 January 2017 with Pan-STARRS 1 telescope (Haleakala), that is more than a year before its perihelion passage. This comet was rather rarely observed until 25 April 2019.

Comet had its closest approach to the Earth on 18 January 2018 (8.395 au), about a month before its perihelion passage.

The preferred solution given here is based on data spanning over 2.31 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 9.50 au – 9.22 au (perihelion) – 9.53 au.

This Oort spike comet suffers small planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system and will have a bit more tight future orbit (see future barycentric orbit).
solution description
number of observations 69
data interval 2017 01 03 – 2018 04 18
data type perihelion within the observation arc (FULL)
data arc selection entire data set (STD)
range of heliocentric distances 9.5 au – 9.22 au (perihelion) – 9.22 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 130
RMS [arcseconds] 0.33
orbit quality class 1a
orbital elements (barycentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 1705 01 03
perihelion date 2018 02 17.57630298 ± 0.16980653
perihelion distance [au] 9.21945855 ± 0.00013179
eccentricity 0.99943286 ± 0.00003659
argument of perihelion [°] 78.390360 ± 0.008815
ascending node [°] 42.652673 ± 0.000405
inclination [°] 32.416063 ± 0.000086
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 61.52 ± 3.97
file containing 5001 VCs swarm
2017aba1.bmi
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).
Six 2D-projections of the 6D space of original swarm including 5001 VCs. Each density map is given in logarithmic scale presented on the right in the individual panel.