C/2017 B3 LINEAR
more info
Comet C/2017 B3 was discovered on 26 January 2017 with the LINEAR survey, , that is about two years before its perihelion passage. Some prediscovery images of this comet were found: taken on 1 and 10 of Aprilnbsp;2016 by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope (Haleakala).

Comet had its closest approach to the Earth on 19nbsp;Augustnbsp;2019 (3.480nbsp;au), about a 6.5nbsp;months after its perihelion passage.

Preferred NGnbsp;solution given here is based on data arc spanning over 5.83nbsp;yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 9.16 au – 3.92 au (perihelion) – 9.15 au.

This comet suffers small planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system; this is a long-period comet with original and future semimajor axes of about 3,300 au, and 2,100 au, respectively.
solution description
number of observations 365
data interval 2016 03 04 – 2019 02 01
data arc selection data generally limited to pre-perihelion (PRE)
range of heliocentric distances 9.16 au – 3.92au
type of model of motion NC - non-gravitational orbits for symmetric CO-g(r)-like function
data weighting YES
number of residuals 709
RMS [arcseconds] 0.27
orbit quality class 1a
orbital elements (barycentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 1712 05 06
perihelion date 2019 02 02.58818270 ± 0.00149842
perihelion distance [au] 3.92466496 ± 0.00001352
eccentricity 0.99883751 ± 0.00000505
argument of perihelion [°] 284.667625 ± 0.000223
ascending node [°] 2.228715 ± 0.000024
inclination [°] 54.290608 ± 0.000059
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 296.20 ± 1.29
file containing 5001 VCs swarm
2017b3pc.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.