C/2003 A2 (Gleason)
C/2003 A2 (Gleason) is a hyperbolic comet from the Oort cloud discovered on January 10, 2002 by Arianna E. Gleason of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory using the Spacewatch II telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory.[1] It has a heliocentric semimajor axis of -1641 AU (indicating its hyperbolic orbit) and reached its perihelion of 11.43 AU on November 4, 2003.[2] C/2003 A2 (Gleason) was the first comet discovered with a perihelion beyond 10 AU.[4]
| Discovery[1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Arianna E. Gleason |
| Discovery site | Kitt Peak National Observatory |
| Discovery date | 10 January 2002 |
| Designations | |
| C/2003 A2 | |
| comet | |
| Orbital characteristics[2] | |
| Epoch 09 May 2003 | |
| Observation arc | 1178 days (3.23 yr) |
| Aphelion | ~47,000 AU (inbound)[3] ~15,000 AU (outbound) |
| Perihelion | 11.42731 AU (outside the orbit of Saturn) |
| Eccentricity | 1.00696 (near perihelion) |
| ~4 million yr (inbound)[3] ~600,000 yr (outbound) | |
| −0.0026585° | |
| Inclination | 8.06155° |
| 154.5447° | |
| 346.6108° | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| 7.1 (total)[2] | |
References
- "IAUC 8049: C/2003 A2; 2003I; 2003H". Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
- "C/2003 A2 (Gleason)". JPL Small-Body Database Browser. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
- Horizons output. "Barycentric Osculating Orbital Elements for Comet C/2003 A2 (Gleason)". Solution using the Solar System Barycenter. Ephemeris Type:Elements and Center:@0 (To be outside planetary region, inbound epoch 1950 and outbound epoch 2050)
- Fernandez, Yan. "List of Jupiter-Family and Halley-Family Comets". Retrieved 1 June 2019.
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