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 7871
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
type of model of motion NT - non-gravitational orbits for asymmetric, standard g(r)
data weighting YES
number of residuals 15569
RMS [arcseconds] 0.34
orbit quality class 1a+
orbital elements (barycentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 1715 12 17
perihelion date 2014 08 27.45047109 ± 0.00001434
perihelion distance [au] 1.05118323 ± 0.00000030
eccentricity 0.99995762 ± 0.00000030
argument of perihelion [°] 203.146951 ± 0.000021
ascending node [°] 317.658270 ± 0.000005
inclination [°] 142.417001 ± 0.000001
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 40.31 ± 0.27
file containing 5001 VCs swarm
2012k1n6.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.