C/2021 S3 PanSTARRS
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Comet C/ was discovered on 24 September 2021 with the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope (Haleakala), that is two years and almost five months before its perihelion passage. Later a few preperihelion measurements were found going back to December 2020. This comet is still observed (as in April 2025).
Comet had its closest approach to the Earth on 14 March 2024 (1.298 au), a month after its perihelion passage.
This comet displays trends in [O-C] diagram already within the pre-perihelion data arc. These trends only partially disappered when NG effects are included to orbital motion. The preferred NG solution currently given here is based on preperihelion data span over 3.19 yr in a range of heliocentric distances from 11.02 au to 1.32 au.
This is an Oort spike comet.
Comet had its closest approach to the Earth on 14 March 2024 (1.298 au), a month after its perihelion passage.
This comet displays trends in [O-C] diagram already within the pre-perihelion data arc. These trends only partially disappered when NG effects are included to orbital motion. The preferred NG solution currently given here is based on preperihelion data span over 3.19 yr in a range of heliocentric distances from 11.02 au to 1.32 au.
This is an Oort spike comet.
| solution description | ||
|---|---|---|
| number of observations | 1118 | |
| data interval | 2020 12 06 – 2024 02 14 | |
| data arc selection | data generally limited to pre-perihelion (PRE) | |
| range of heliocentric distances | 11.02 au – 1.32 au (perihelion) – 1.32 au | |
| type of model of motion | NS - non-gravitational orbits for standard g(r) | |
| data weighting | YES | |
| number of residuals | 2219 | |
| RMS [arcseconds] | 0.28 | |
| orbit quality class | 1a | |
| orbital elements (barycentric ecliptic J2000) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Epoch | 1725 02 27 | |
| perihelion date | 2024 02 14.66071115 | ± 0.00007244 |
| perihelion distance [au] | 1.32445403 | ± 0.00000125 |
| eccentricity | 0.99997556 | ± 0.00000067 |
| argument of perihelion [°] | 6.812728 | ± 0.000054 |
| ascending node [°] | 215.672107 | ± 0.000018 |
| inclination [°] | 58.510767 | ± 0.000007 |
| reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] | 18.45 | ± 0.51 |
| file containing 5001 VCs swarm |
|---|
| 2021s3pn.bmi |
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 original swarm including 5001 VCs. Each density map is given in logarithmic scale presented on the right in the individual panel.