LINEAR

Orbit and dynamics

The path is an ellipse reaching 0.502 AU from the Sun at perihelion and 5.038 AU at aphelion, a radial span of 4.536 AU.

Applying Kepler's third law to a = 2.77 AU gives an orbital period of 4.61 yr, or about 1,684 days.

The high eccentricity (0.819) produces a strongly elongated orbit, so the object spends most of its time far from the Sun.

The orbital plane is tilted 8.4° relative to the ecliptic.

By the vis-viva equation its orbital speed rises to 56.7 km/s at perihelion and falls to 5.7 km/s at aphelion.

Because q < 1 AU and Q > 1 AU, this orbit geometrically intersects the region of Earth's orbit.

Its Tisserand parameter with respect to Jupiter is T_J = 2.71, a standard discriminator between asteroidal and cometary dynamics.

Size and surface

Neither a measured diameter nor a reliable absolute magnitude is available for LINEAR, so its physical size remains unconstrained.

Observation record and orbit quality

The current orbit solution is based on 884 observations and has a weighted RMS residual of 0.5185 arcseconds.

Condition code U = 0 means the orbit is very well determined, leaving only a small uncertainty in the future ephemeris.