 Comet SWAN in an outburst as photographed on 22 October 2006 | |
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Robert D. Matson Michael Mattiazzo |
| Discovery site | SOHO (SWAN) |
| Discovery date | 20 June 2006 |
| Orbital characteristics[2][3] | |
| Epoch | 10 November 2006 (JD 2454049.5) |
| Orbit type | Oort cloud |
| Aphelion | ~9,800 AU (inbound) ~2,640 AU (outbound) |
| Perihelion | 0.783 AU |
| Semi-major axis | 1,300 AU |
| Eccentricity | 0.9998 |
| Orbital period | ~340,000 years (inbound) ~48,000 years (outbound) |
| Inclination | 111.82° |
| 148.73° | |
| Argument of periapsis | 62.594° |
| Last perihelion | 28 September 2006[1] |
| EarthMOID | 0.070 AU |
| JupiterMOID | 1.089 AU |
| Physical characteristics[3] | |
| Comet total magnitude (M1) | 11.0 |
| 4.0 (2006 apparition) | |
C/2006 M4 (SWAN) is anon-periodic comet discovered in late June 2006 byRobert D. Matson ofIrvine, California andMichael Mattiazzo ofAdelaide,South Australia in publicly available images of theSolar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). These images were captured by theSolar Wind ANisotropies (SWAN) Lyman-alpha all-sky camera on board the SOHO. The comet was officially announced after a ground-based confirmation byRobert McNaught (Siding Spring Survey) on July 12.[4]
Although perihelion was reached on 28 September 2006,[1] the comet flared dramatically from an outburst, resulting in its apparent magnitude to increase from 7.0 to 4.0 on 24 October 2006, becoming visible with thenaked eye.[5][6]
Comet C/2006 M4 is in ahyperbolic trajectory (with anosculating eccentricity larger than 1)[1] during its passage through the innerSolar System. After leaving the influence of the planets, the eccentricity will drop below 1 and it will remain bound to the Solar System as anOort cloud comet.
Given the extremeorbital eccentricity of this object, differentepochs can generate quite different heliocentric unperturbedtwo-bodybest-fit solutions to the aphelion distance of this object. For objects at such high eccentricity, the Sunsbarycentric coordinates are more stable than heliocentric coordinates. UsingJPL Horizons, the barycentric orbital elements for epoch 2013-May-14 generate a semi-major axis of about 1,300 AU (190 billion km) and a period of about 48,000 years.[2]
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