C/2012 K1 PANSTARRS
more info
Comet C/2012 K1 was discovered on 19 May 2012 with Pan-STARRS 1 telescope (Haleakala), that is more than 2 years before its perihelion passage. Later a few pre-discovery images were found taken on 14 May ( MASTER-II Observatory, Tunka) and 17 May (Pan-STARRS 1). It was almost systematically observed until 7 August 2016 (see picture).
C/2012 K1 had its closest approach to the Earth on 31 October 2014 (0.953 au), about 2 months after its perihelion passage.
Preferred solution given here is based on data spanning over 4.23 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 8.83 au – 1.055 au (perihelion) – 7.85 au.
This Oort spike comet suffers small planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system that cause a bit tighter future orbit (see future barycentric orbits).
See also Królikowska 2020.

solution description
number of observations 7871
data interval 2012 05 14 – 2016 08 07
data type perihelion within the observation arc (FULL)
data arc selection entire data set (STD)
range of heliocentric distances 8.83 au – 1.05 au (perihelion) – 7.85 au
type of model of motion NT - non-gravitational orbits for asymmetric, standard g(r)
data weighting YES
number of residuals 15569
RMS [arcseconds] 0.34
orbit quality class 1a+
orbital elements (heliocentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 2014 08 11
perihelion date 2014 08 27.65616383 ± 0.00000837
perihelion distance [au] 1.05455168 ± 0.00000013
eccentricity 1.00013986 ± 0.00000041
argument of perihelion [°] 203.105867 ± 0.000010
ascending node [°] 317.737772 ± 0.000006
inclination [°] 142.428605 ± 0.000002
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] -132.62 ± 0.39
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.
non-gravitational parameters
A1 [10-8au/day2] 2.2829 ± 0.01
A2 [10-8au/day2] -0.14098 ± 0.00834
A3 [10-8au/day2] -0.27742 ± 0.00246
m -2.15
n 5.093
k -4.6142
r0 [au] 2.808
α 0.1113
ΔT [days] 2.4644 ± 0.2317