C/2012 K1 PANSTARRS
more info
Comet C/2012 K1 was discovered on 19 May 2012 with Pan-STARRS 1 telescope (Haleakala), that is more than 2 years before its perihelion passage. Later a few pre-discovery images were found taken on 14 May ( MASTER-II Observatory, Tunka) and 17 May (Pan-STARRS 1). It was almost systematically observed until 7 August 2016 (see picture).
C/2012 K1 had its closest approach to the Earth on 31 October 2014 (0.953 au), about 2 months after its perihelion passage.
Preferred solution given here is based on data spanning over 4.23 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 8.83 au – 1.055 au (perihelion) – 7.85 au.
This Oort spike comet suffers small planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system that cause a bit tighter future orbit (see future barycentric orbits).
See also Królikowska 2020.

solution description
number of observations 7889
data interval 2012 05 14 – 2016 08 07
data type perihelion within the observation arc (FULL)
data arc selection entire data set (STD)
range of heliocentric distances 8.83 au – 1.05 au (perihelion) – 7.85 au
detectability of NG effects in the comet's motion comet with NG effects strongly manifested in positional data fitting
type of model of motion GR - gravitational orbit
data weighting YES
number of residuals 15752
RMS [arcseconds] 0.67
orbit quality class 1a+
orbital elements (heliocentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 2014 08 11
perihelion date 2014 08 27.65483246 ± 0.00001256
perihelion distance [au] 1.05458144 ± 0.00000008
eccentricity 1.00024084 ± 0.00000021
argument of perihelion [°] 203.104195 ± 0.000010
ascending node [°] 317.737509 ± 0.000010
inclination [°] 142.428264 ± 0.000003
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] -228.38 ± 0.20
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.
Lower panel (panels): O-C diagram for this(two) solution (solutions) given in this database, where residuals in right ascension are shown using magenta dots and in declination by blue open circles.