C/2003 T3 Tabur
more info
Comet C/2003 T3 was discovered on 14 October 2003 by Vello Tabur (Australian Capital Territory); that is 6.5 months before its perihelion passage. It was observed until 3 May 2005.
Comet had its closest approach to the Earth on 22 May 2004 (2.319 au), about 3 weeks after its perihelion passage.
Preferred solution given here is based on data spanning over 1.55 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 2.968 au – 1.481 au (perihelion) – 4.63 au, however NG solution based on pre-perihelion data (pn) is also adequate for past calculations.
This Oort spike comet suffers large planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system; these perturbations lead to a significantly more tight future orbit with semimajor axis of about 1,400 au.
See also Królikowska 2020.

solution description
number of observations 211
data interval 2003 10 14 – 2004 04 29
data arc selection data generally limited to pre-perihelion (PRE)
range of heliocentric distances 2.96 au – 1.48 au (perihelion) – 1.48 au
type of model of motion NS - non-gravitational orbits for standard g(r)
data weighting YES
number of residuals 413
RMS [arcseconds] 0.40
orbit quality class 2a
orbital elements (barycentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 1703 11 30
perihelion date 2004 04 29.10973348 ± 0.00233554
perihelion distance [au] 1.48611942 ± 0.00005224
eccentricity 0.99982350 ± 0.00004108
argument of perihelion [°] 43.691112 ± 0.002353
ascending node [°] 347.084299 ± 0.000535
inclination [°] 50.41172 ± 0.000284
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 118.77 ± 27.65
file containing 5001 VCs swarm
2003t3pn.bmi
Time distribution of positional observations with corresponding heliocentric (red curve) and geocentric (green curve) distance at which they were taken. The horizontal dotted line shows the perihelion distance for a given comet whereas vertical dotted line — the moment of perihelion passage.
Six 2D-projections of the 6D space of original swarm including 5001 VCs. Each density map is given in logarithmic scale presented on the right in the individual panel.