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