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 2042
data interval 2015 09 11 – 2018 05 21
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) – 6.38 au
type of model of motion NS - non-gravitational orbits for standard g(r)
data weighting YES
number of residuals 4050
RMS [arcseconds] 0.42
orbit quality class 1a+
orbital elements (heliocentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 2017 09 04
perihelion date 2017 09 16.59682997 ± 0.00006987
perihelion distance [au] 3.19910213 ± 0.00000089
eccentricity 0.99937772 ± 0.00000129
argument of perihelion [°] 55.955183 ± 0.000014
ascending node [°] 354.031351 ± 0.000004
inclination [°] 72.557284 ± 0.000004
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 194.52 ± 0.40
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] 163.81 ± 7.78
A2 [10-8au/day2] 12.421 ± 7.425
A3 [10-8au/day2] -34.39 ± 2.03
m -2.15
n 5.093
k -4.6142
r0 [au] 2.808
α 0.1113