C/2017 U4 PANSTARRS
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Comet C/2017 U4 was discovered on 27 October 2017 with Pan-STARRS 1 telescope (Haleakala), that is about 11 months before its perihelion passage. Few prediscovery images of this comet were found: taken by the same survey from 2 January 2017.This comet was observed until 26 February 2020.

Comet had its closest approach to the Earth on 11 December 2018 (6.761 au), about 2.5 months after its perihelion passage.

The preferred solution given here is based on data spanning over 3.15 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 8.64 au – 7.72 au (perihelion) – 8.36 au.

This near-parabolic comet suffers tiny planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system (original and future semimajor axes around 9,000 au).
solution description
number of observations 82
data interval 2017 01 02 – 2020 02 26
data type perihelion within the observation arc (FULL)
data arc selection entire data set (STD)
range of heliocentric distances 8.64 au – 7.72 au (perihelion) – 8.36 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 153
RMS [arcseconds] 0.31
orbit quality class 1a
orbital elements (barycentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 2329 10 19
perihelion date 2018 09 24.89258403 ± 0.00358698
perihelion distance [au] 7.72968589 ± 0.00002151
eccentricity 0.99921421 ± 0.00002039
argument of perihelion [°] 159.180031 ± 0.000244
ascending node [°] 246.024270 ± 0.000088
inclination [°] 158.211758 ± 0.000039
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 101.66 ± 2.64
file containing 5001 VCs swarm
2017u4b2.bpl
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.