C/2013 G8 PANSTARRS
more info
Comet C/2013 G8 was discovered on 14 April 2013 with Pan-STARRS 1 telescope (Haleakala), that is 7 months before its perihelion passage. It was observed until 20 August 2015.
Comet had its closest approach to the Earth on 1 August 2013 (4.318 au), about 3.5 months after discovery and 3.5 months before perihelion passage.
Solution given here is based on data spanning over 2.35 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 5.39 au – 5.141 au (perihelion) – 6.98 au.
This Oort spike comet suffers moderate planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system; these perturbations lead to a more tight future orbit (see future barycentric orbits).

solution description
number of observations 148
data interval 2013 04 14 – 2015 08 20
data type perihelion within the observation arc (FULL)
data arc selection entire data set (STD)
range of heliocentric distances 5.39 au – 5.14 au (perihelion) – 6.98 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 284
RMS [arcseconds] 0.21
orbit quality class 1a+
orbital elements (barycentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 2323 09 01
perihelion date 2013 11 14.81651843 ± 0.00136829
perihelion distance [au] 5.14318601 ± 0.00000529
eccentricity 0.99811987 ± 0.00000506
argument of perihelion [°] 80.178418 ± 0.000150
ascending node [°] 240.981290 ± 0.000021
inclination [°] 27.600225 ± 0.000006
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 365.56 ± 0.98
file containing 5001 VCs swarm
2013g8a5.bpl
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 future swarm including 5001 VCs. Each density map is given in logarithmic scale presented on the right in the individual panel.