C/2012 K8 Lemmon
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Comet C/2012 K8 was discovered on 30 May 2012 with Mount Lemmon survey, that is about 2.2 years before its perihelion passage. It was observed during five oppositions until 8 June 2016.

Comet had its closest approach to the Earth on 21 June 2014 (6.120 au), about 2 months before perihelion passage.

Solutions given here are based on data spanning over 4.02 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 8.40 au – 6.463 au (perihelion) – 7.81 au.

This Oort spike comet suffers very tiny planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system and in the next perihelion passage it will be an Oort spike comet.

See also Królikowska and Dones 2023.

solution description
number of observations 987
data interval 2012 05 30 – 2016 06 08
data type perihelion within the observation arc (FULL)
data arc selection entire data set (STD)
range of heliocentric distances 8.4 au – 6.46 au (perihelion) – 7.81 au
detectability of NG effects in the comet's motion NG effects not determinable
type of model of motion GR - gravitational orbit
data weighting YES
number of residuals 1918
RMS [arcseconds] 0.45
orbit quality class 1a+
next orbit statistics, both Galactic and stellar perturbations were taken into account
no. of returning VCs in the swarm 5001 *
no. of escaping VCs in the swarm 0
no. of hyperbolas among escaping VCs in the swarm 0
next reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 23.44 – 24.12 – 24.75
next perihelion distance [au] 91 – 120 – 150
next aphelion distance [103 au] 80.7 – 82.8 – 85.2
time interval to next perihelion [Myr] 7.87 – 8.15 – 8.47
percentage of VCs with qnext > 20100
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).
next orbit statistics, here only the Galactic tide has been included
no. of returning VCs in the swarm 5001 *
no. of escaping VCs in the swarm 0
no. of hyperbolas among escaping VCs in the swarm 0
next reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 22.71 – 23.36 – 23.98
next perihelion distance [au] 36 – 45 – 56
next aphelion distance [103 au] 83.4 – 85.6 – 88
time interval to next perihelion [Myr] 8.26 – 8.57 – 8.92
percentage of VCs with qnext > 20100