C/2011 L4 (PanSTARRS)

"Comet PANSTARRS" redirects here. For the Hawaii telescope facility, see Pan-STARRS. For other comets discovered by "PANSTARRS", see List of Pan-STARRS discoveries.

C/2011 L4 (PanSTARRS)
Image of Comet PanSTARRS by Gingin Observatory
Discovery
Discovered byPan-STARRS
Discovery date6 June 2011
Orbital characteristics[4]
Epoch20 Mar 2012
(JD 2456006.5)
Observation arc3.27 years
Number of
observations		5413
Orbit typeOort cloud
Aphelion68000 AU (inbound)[1]
4500 AU (outbound)
Perihelion0.30161 AU (q)
Eccentricity1.000087
Orbital periodMillions of years (inbound)
~107,000 yr
(outbound solution for epoch 2050)[1]
Max. orbital speed76.7 km/s (172,000 mph)[2]
Inclination84.199°
Last perihelion10 March 2013[3]
Jupiter MOID0.17 AU

C/2011 L4 (PanSTARRS), also known as Comet PANSTARRS, is a non-periodic comet discovered in June 2011 that became visible to the naked eye when it was near perihelion in March 2013.[5][6] It was discovered using the Pan-STARRS telescope located near the summit of Haleakalā, on the island of Maui in Hawaii. Comet C/2011 L4 probably took millions of years to come from the Oort cloud. After leaving the planetary region of the Solar System, the post-perihelion orbital period (epoch 2050) is estimated to be roughly 107000 years.[1] Dust and gas production suggests the comet nucleus is roughly 1 kilometer (0.62 mi) in diameter,[7] while based on the absolute nuclear magnitude and a geometric albedo of 0.04 the diameter of the nucleus is over 2.4 kilometers (1.5 mi).[8] A method based on coma magnitude decay function estimated the effective radius at 2.317 ± 0.190 km.[9]

  1. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference barycenter was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference perihelion-kms was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference jpldata was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS)". Small-Body Database Lookup. ssd.jpl.nasa.gov. Retrieved 16 June 2024.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference skytel-Apr2012 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference kronk was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference ScienceAtNASA was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Ferrín, Ignacio (1 August 2014). "The location of Oort Cloud comets C/2011 L4 Panstarrs and C/2012 S1 ISON on a comet evolutionary diagram". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 442 (2): 1731–1754. doi:10.1093/mnras/stu820. hdl:10495/8143.
  9. ^ Paradowski, Mieczyslaw Leszek (1 March 2020). "A new method of determining brightness and size of cometary nuclei". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 492 (3): 4175–4188. doi:10.1093/mnras/stz3597.