Issue |
A&A
Volume 376, Number 1, September II 2001
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 316 - 324 | |
Section | Celestial mechanics and astrometry | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20010945 | |
Published online | 15 September 2001 |
A study of the original orbits of "hyperbolic" comets
Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Bartycka 18A, 00-716 Warsaw, Poland
Received:
7
March
2001
Accepted:
27
June
2001
The problem of hyperbolic incoming orbits for
single-apparition comets is investigated. In this context the
effect of non-gravitational acceleration on cometary dynamics was
analyzed for the sample of 33 "hyperbolic" comets. The orbital
elements of each cometary orbit were determined by the least
squares procedure based on positional observations. These
osculating orbital elements serve as a basis for the determination
of the incoming orbits. The new method of estimating the
uncertainties of based on a statistical approach
to the orbit determinations is applied. For sixteen comets it was
possible to determine the non-gravitational effects and original
"non-gravitational" orbits. We show that for almost all the comets
with detectable non-gravitational effects the incoming barycentric
orbits changed from hyperbolic to elliptical when the
non-gravitational effects were included. However, it was also
ascertained that excess velocity at great distance are not
cancelled by the non-gravitational acceleration itself. We show
that the non-gravitational effects are responsible for small
modifications of the osculating elements (mainly eccentricity),
which are sufficient, however, to obtain the elliptic original
orbits for comets recognized in the literature as hyperbolic.
Key words: comets: general
© ESO, 2001
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