C/2014 OE4 PANSTARRS
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Comet C/2014 OE4 was discovered on 26 July 2014 with Pan-STARRS 1 telescope (Haleakala), that is 2.4 yr before its perihelion passage; its cometary nature was soon recognised. Next, this comet was found on earlier images taken on several occasion by Pan-STARRS 1, Mount Lemmon Survey and Steward Observatory (Kitt Peak-Spacewatch survey), reaching back to 8 May 2014. This comet was observed until mid-January of 2020.

Comet had its closest approach to the Earth on 1 June 2016 (5.755 au), about six months before its perihelion passage.

Solution given here is based on data spanning over 5.71 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 8.86 au – 6.253 au (perihelion) – 7.84 au.

This Oort spike comet suffers slight planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system; these perturbations lead to a more tight future orbit with a semimajor axis larger than 10,000 au (see future barycentric orbits).
solution description
number of observations 1805
data interval 2014 05 08 – 2020 01 21
data type perihelion within the observation arc (FULL)
data arc selection entire data set (STD)
range of heliocentric distances 8.86 au – 6.24 au (perihelion) – 7.84 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 3557
RMS [arcseconds] 0.36
orbit quality class 1a+
previous orbit statistics, both Galactic and stellar perturbations were taken into account
no. of returning VCs in the swarm 5001 *
no. of escaping VCs in the swarm 0
no. of hyperbolas among escaping VCs in the swarm 0
previous reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 36.92 – 37.03 – 37.20
previous perihelion distance [au] 491 – 502 – 514
previous aphelion distance [103 au] 53.27 – 53.51 – 53.65
time interval to previous perihelion [Myr] 3.87 – 3.905 – 3.94
percentage of VCs with qprev > 20100
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.
Middle panel(s): O-C diagram for a given solution (sometimes in comparison to another solution available in CODE), where residuals in right ascension are shown using magenta dots and in declination by blue open circles.
Lowest panel: Relative weights for a given data set(s).
previous_g orbit statistics, here only the Galactic tide has been included
no. of returning VCs in the swarm 5001 *
no. of escaping VCs in the swarm 0
no. of hyperbolas among escaping VCs in the swarm 0
previous reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 38.99 – 39.25 – 39.51
previous perihelion distance [au] 9.08 – 9.22 – 9.36
previous aphelion distance [103 au] 50.61 – 50.95 – 51.29
time interval to previous perihelion [Myr] 3.998 – 4.037 – 4.077
percentage of VCs with qprev < 10100