re comet in temporary orbit around jupiter in article apr kelvin jpl nasa gov baalke kelvin jpl nasa gov ron baalke writes in article apr sq sq com msb sq sq com mark brader writes so how close would the comet have gotten to jupiter on the pass that put it into temporary orbit and how far is it likely to get from jupiter before it makes its escape the answer to all of these questions is we don t know yet we don t know for sure if the comet is in a temporary orbit i see i wasn t so interested in this particular case as in typical behavior anyway can these questions be answered for a previous instance such as the gehrels that was mentioned in an earlier posting gehrels was in a temporary jovian orbit for about or years i ll get the orbital elements from dance of the planets and post them here sorry folks i should have done this and meant to just after i hit the send key orbital elements of comet vii from dance files p au e i cap omega w epoch also perihelions of gehrels were april jupiter radii august jupiter radii hope this helps i m even less of an orbital mechanic than i am an artist john garland jgarland kean ucs mun ca
