C/2002 J4 NEAT
more info
C/2002 J4 was discovered on 13 May 2002 by the NEAT as an apparently cometary object. Additional observations confirmed its cometary apperance. At once, pre-discovery detections made by LONEOS and LINEAR on 4—8 May were found [IAUC 7899, 2002 May 13].
This comet made its closest approach to the Earth on 29 June 2003 (2.824 au), three months before perihelion.
Solution given here is based on data spanning over 4.4 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 5.74 au – 3.634 au (perihelion) – 9.38 au.
This Oort spike comet suffers moderate planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system that lead to escape of the comet from the solar system on hiperbolic orbit (see future barycentric orbit).
See also Królikowska 2014 and Królikowska and Dybczyński 2017.

solution description
number of observations 232
data interval 2002 05 04 – 2006 10 01
data type perihelion within the observation arc (FULL)
data arc selection entire data set (STD)
range of heliocentric distances 5.74 au – 3.63 au (perihelion) – 9.38 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 451
RMS [arcseconds] 0.48
orbit quality class 1a+
orbital elements (barycentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 1700 08 17
perihelion date 2003 10 03.50672500 ± 0.00024400
perihelion distance [au] 3.63841226 ± 0.00000105
eccentricity 0.99987674 ± 0.00000360
argument of perihelion [°] 230.676162 ± 0.000035
ascending node [°] 70.946574 ± 0.000015
inclination [°] 46.492041 ± 0.000016
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 33.88 ± 0.99
file containing 5001 VCs swarm
2002j4a5.bmi
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 original swarm including 5001 VCs. Each density map is given in logarithmic scale presented on the right in the individual panel.