C/2011 L4 (PanSTARRS)
Image of Comet PanSTARRS by Gingin Observatory | |
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Pan-STARRS |
| Discovery date | 6 June 2011 |
| Orbital characteristics | |
| Epoch | 20 Mar 2012 (JD 2456006.5) |
| Observation arc | 3.27 years |
| Number of observations | 5413 |
| Orbit type | Oort cloud |
| Aphelion | 68000 AU (inbound) 4500 AU (outbound) |
| Perihelion | 0.30161 AU (q) |
| Eccentricity | 1.000087 |
| Orbital period | Millions of years (inbound) ~107,000 yr (outbound solution for epoch 2050) |
| Max. orbital speed | 76.7 km/s (172,000 mph) |
| Inclination | 84.199° |
| Last perihelion | 10 March 2013 |
| Jupiter MOID | 0.17 AU |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 1.0–2.4 km (0.62–1.49 mi) |
| 0.04 | |
| Comet total magnitude (M1) | 5.5 |
| 1.0 (2013 apparition) | |
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. 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. Dust and gas production suggests the comet nucleus is roughly 1 kilometer (0.62 mi) in diameter, 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). A method based on coma magnitude decay function estimated the effective radius at 2.317 ± 0.190 km.