C/2016 N4 Master
more info


Comet C/2016 N4 was discovered on 15 July 2016 with Mobile Astronomical System of the Telescope-Robots (MASTER), that is about  months after its perihelion passage.

Some prediscovery images of this comet were found: taken on 11 September 2015 by ISON-SSO Observatory (Siding Spring).

Solutions given here are based on data spanning over 4.54 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 7.14 au – 3.199 au (perihelion) – 8.37 au.

NG orbits using full data-arc as well as independently using pre-perihelion and post-perihelion data are determinable.

See also Królikowska and Dones 2023.
solution description
number of observations 2075
data interval 2015 09 11 – 2020 03 26
data type perihelion within the observation arc (FULL)
data arc selection entire data set (STD)
range of heliocentric distances 7.14 au – 3.20 au (perihelion) – 8.37 au
type of model of motion NS - non-gravitational orbits for standard g(r)
data weighting YES
number of residuals 4096
RMS [arcseconds] 0.45
orbit quality class 1a+
orbital elements (heliocentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 2017 09 04
perihelion date 2017 09 16.59730584 ± 0.00006382
perihelion distance [au] 3.19909343 ± 0.00000078
eccentricity 0.99937143 ± 0.00000123
argument of perihelion [°] 55.955254 ± 0.000013
ascending node [°] 354.031339 ± 0.000004
inclination [°] 72.557279 ± 0.000004
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 196.48 ± 0.39
Upper panel: 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.
Middle panel(s): O-C diagram for a given solution (sometimes in comparison to another solution available in CODE), where residuals in right ascension are shown using magenta dots and in declination by blue open circles.
Lowest panel: Relative weights for a given data set(s).
non-gravitational parameters
A1 [10-8au/day2] 247.79 ± 6.8
A2 [10-8au/day2] 27.589 ± 7.427
A3 [10-8au/day2] -45.056 ± 1.969
m -2.15
n 5.093
k -4.6142
r0 [au] 2.808
α 0.1113