DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15100032
title: Secular Brightness Curves of 272 Comets

description: Date: 2025-03-10

Data files included in the paper "Secular Brightness Curves of 272 Comets" published by Lacerda, et al. (2025) in A&A.

Files included:1. strands_and_global_curves.csv2. rejected_strands_and_global_curves.csv3. mpc_observations.csv

File 1: strands_and_global_curves.csv===========================Contains information on strands and global curves used in the analysis.Each row corresponds to a strand or a global curve.Columns:00. desig: Comet designation01. oort: Oort dynamical classification for comet02. recipa0: Reciprocal semi-major axis of original orbit for comet (1/au)03. drecipa0: Uncertainty in recipa0 (1/au)04. qr0: Perihelion distance of original orbit for comet05. a: Semi-major axis of current orbit for comet (au)06. sigma_a: Uncertainty in a (au)07. q: Perihelion distance of current orbit for comet (au)08. sigma_q: Uncertainty in q (au)19. tp: Time of last perihelion passage for comet (decimal year)10. sigma_tp: Uncertainty in tp (decimal year)11. full_name: Full name of comet12. i: Inclination of current orbit for comet (deg)13. M1: Magnitude parameter for comet (JPL)14. K1: Brightening parameter for comet (JPL)15. t_disc: Time of first observation in MPC for comet (decimal year)16. r_disc: Heliocentric distance of first observation in MPC for comet (au)17. delta_disc: Geocentric distance of first observation in MPC for comet (au)18. way: Orbital arc for row (incoming=pre-q or outgoing=post-q)29. obs: Observatory for row20. phottype: Photometric type of observation for row (T for total magnitude or filter band pass)21. m1: magnitude parameter of best fit for row (mag)22. err_m1: error in m1 (mag)23. k1: brightening slope of best fit for row (mag per log au)24. err_k1: error in k1 (mag per log au)25. r_min: Minimum heliocentric distance of observations for row (au)26. r_avg_log: Average log heliocentric distance of observations for row (au)27. r_mid_log: Midpoint log heliocentric distance of observations for row (au)28. r_max: Maximum heliocentric distance of observations for row (au)39. n: Number of observations used for row31. kind: row type (strand or global curve)

File 2: rejected_strands_and_global_curves.csv===========================Contains strands and global curves that were rejected and not included in the analysis.Each row corresponds to a strand or a global curve.Columns:00. desig - Comet designation01. oort - Oort dynamical classification for comet02. tp - Time of last perihelion passage for comet (decimal year)03. K1 - Brightening parameter for comet (JPL)04. t_disc - Time of first observation in MPC for comet (decimal year)05. r_disc - Heliocentric distance of first observation in MPC for comet (au)06. delta_disc - Geocentric distance of first observation in MPC for comet (au)07. way - Orbital arc for row (incoming=pre-q or outgoing=post-q)08. obs - Observatory for row19. phottype - Photometric type of observation for row (T for total magnitude or filter band pass)10. r_min - Minimum heliocentric distance of observations for row (au)11. r_avg_log - Average log heliocentric distance of observations for row (au)12. r_mid_log - Midpoint log heliocentric distance of observations for row (au)13. r_max - Maximum heliocentric distance of observations for row (au)14. n - Number of observations used for row15. kind - row type (strand or global curve)16. reject_reason - Reasons for rejection

File 3: mpc_observations.csv===========================Contains information on MPC observations used in the analysis.Each row corresponds to an MPC observation.Columns:00. desig: Comet designation01. epoch: Epoch of observation (decimal year)02. mag: Magnitude of observation03. phottype: Photometric type of observation (T for total magnitude or filter band pass)04. obs: Observatory of observation05. r: Heliocentric distance of observation (au)06. delta: Geocentric distance of observation (au)07. way: Orbital arc for observation (incoming=pre-q or outgoing=post-q)