C/2022 QE78 ATLAS
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Comet C/2022 QE78 was discovered on 27 August 2022 by ATLAS Chile (Rio Hurtado), that is more than three years before its perihelion passage.
As in April 2025, this comet still is going to the perihelion point and will have its closest approach to the Earth on 28 January 2026 (4.60 au), about four months after its perihelion passage.
Thus, the preferred NG solution given here is based on pre-perihelion data span over 2.54 yr in a range of heliocentric distances from 9.44 au to 5.64 au.
This Oort spike comet suffers notable planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system that likely lead to more tight future orbit with semimajor axis as about 480 au.
As in April 2025, this comet still is going to the perihelion point and will have its closest approach to the Earth on 28 January 2026 (4.60 au), about four months after its perihelion passage.
Thus, the preferred NG solution given here is based on pre-perihelion data span over 2.54 yr in a range of heliocentric distances from 9.44 au to 5.64 au.
This Oort spike comet suffers notable planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system that likely lead to more tight future orbit with semimajor axis as about 480 au.
| solution description | ||
|---|---|---|
| number of observations | 2281 | |
| data interval | 2022 08 27 – 2025 03 11 | |
| data type | observed only before perihelion (PRE) | |
| data arc selection | entire data set (STD) | |
| range of heliocentric distances | 9.44 au – 5.64au | |
| type of model of motion | NC - non-gravitational orbits for symmetric CO-g(r)-like function | |
| data weighting | YES | |
| number of residuals | 4518 | |
| RMS [arcseconds] | 0.34 | |
| orbit quality class | 1a | |
| orbital elements (barycentric ecliptic J2000) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Epoch | 1719 06 19 | |
| perihelion date | 2025 09 10.67306466 | ± 0.00219703 |
| perihelion distance [au] | 5.47107879 | ± 0.00001376 |
| eccentricity | 0.99987427 | ± 0.00000574 |
| argument of perihelion [°] | 0.488252 | ± 0.000143 |
| ascending node [°] | 120.033929 | ± 0.000043 |
| inclination [°] | 36.572863 | ± 0.000009 |
| reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] | 22.98 | ± 1.05 |
| file containing 5001 VCs swarm |
|---|
| 2022qepc.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.