C/2013 X1 (PANSTARRS)
DEPARTED
Type: Hyperbolic
Perihelion date: 20 April 2016
Perihelion distance (q): 1.3
Aphelion distance (Q) : n/a
Period (years): n/a
Eccentricity (e): 1.00
Inclination (i): 163.2
JPL orbit diagram
COBS lightcurve
Pan-STARRS discovered a 20th magnitude comet on 4 December 2013. There were
pre-discovery images from the Mt Lemmon Survey taken on 29 November. The
comet brightened quite rapidly in January 2016 and became visible in large
binoculars.
The rapid brightening generated many reports of an outburst, but these were
premature as there was no substantial deviation away from the mean light curve at
that time. At other times there were as many observations below the mean curve, yet
there were few reports that it was disintegrating.
It was recovered after solar conjunction by Marco Goiato on 17 April 2014 in 20x100
binoculars. It was fainter than originally expected at magnitude 7.5, but moderately
condensed. It reached a peak of around magnitude 6.5 in June, then faded rapidly.
The comet was significantly brighter than the mean curve during January and
February 2016, which lends more credence to the idea of an outburst, however the
overall light-curve does not appear to show any discontinuity.
Observations (VEMag = visual equivalent magnitude)
Date
10x10 mag
Error
VEmag
Coma '
22-Oct-15
13.73
0.01
10.7
1.5
28-May-16
11.76
0.02
7.8
5.2
01-Jun-16
11.76
0.01
7.8
8.6
09-Jun-16
11.57
0.04
7.2
10.1
20-Jun-16
11.39
0.02
7.9
5.9
29-Jan-17
16.70
0.13
16.0
0.2
02-Apr-17
16.57
0.03
15.1
0.4
04-Apr-17
16.63
0.07
14.7
0.4
21-Apr-17
16.62
0.04
14.1
0.5
30-Apr-17
16.67
0.02
15.5
0.5