Skip to content

JPL Horizons Harvester sets incorrect element scheme for high eccentricity objects #1180

@talister

Description

@talister

Describe the bug
Objects with an eccentricity >~0.9 need to be stored and submitted to the LCO/OCS scheduling system as MPC_COMET type due to the need to ultimately use a different mathematical method to calculate positions in the low-level SLALIB library. Ingesting comets with high eccentricity such as C/2021 G2 (ATLAS) through the JPL Horizons Harvester results in an Target created with an orbital element scheme of MPC_MINOR_PLANET. This results in a submittal failure when attempting to schedule observations.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

  1. Go to 'Targets->Create Targets->Catalog Search'
  2. Select 'JPL Horizons' as the Service and enter 'C/2021 G2' in the Term box
  3. Click search
  4. Observe eccentricity is >1 and scheme is 'MPC Minor Planet'

Expected behavior
Objects with an eccentricity >= 0.9 should have scheme set to 'MPC Comet' and the presence of a non-zero/null value for the epoch of perihelion should be verified

Screenshots
Attached

Image

Desktop (please complete the following information):

  • OS: Rocky Linux 9.5
  • Browser: Firefox
  • Version: 128.7.0esr (64-bit)
  • Python Version: 3.11.9

Additional context

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

No one assigned

    Labels

    Patch PartyCollaborative effort mostly done as part of a patch partyRubin SSSCSolar System Science Collaboration WorkUserIssue Raised by a userbugSomething isn't working

    Type

    No type

    Projects

    Status

    Closed

    Relationships

    None yet

    Development

    No branches or pull requests

    Issue actions