Comet Machholz - Period

Period

Given the orbital eccentricity of this object, different epochs can generate quite different heliocentric unperturbed two-body best-fit solutions to the aphelion distance (maximum distance) of this object. For objects at such high eccentricity, the Suns barycentric coordinates are more stable than heliocentric coordinates. Using JPL Horizons the barycentric orbital elements for epoch 2011-Jan-01 generate a semi-major axis of 537 AU and a period of approximately 12,500 years. This gives it a barycentric orbital period just a little larger than Sedna.

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