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20 November 2023 at 11:08 pm
#620247
Nick James
Participant
This latest outburst was a big one but it has had no detectable effect (so far) on the motion of the very massive nucleus of 12P. This plot shows astrometric residuals from three stations (970, I79 and I81) with an orbit fit that uses positions up to Nov 14. You can see that there is a large temporary displacement of the residuals on Nov 15 and 16. This is due to the biasing of the centroid of the coma by the very bright dust cloud moving NE from the nucleus. As this dust cloud fades the astrometry is returning to normal.