C/2016 K1 LINEAR
more info
Comet C/2016 K1 was discovered on 31 May 2016 during LINEAR survey (Space Surveillance Telescope, Atom Peak, White Sands Missile Range, NM, USA), that is 1.5 months before its perihelion passage, and was followed until 1 April 2017. Comet had closest approach to the Earth on 3 August 2016 (1.511 au, about three weeks after the perihelion passage).

This is a comet with NG effects determinable using positional data fitting. All solutions (GR and NG) are based on data spanning over 0.836 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 2.34 au – 2.292 au (perihelion) – 3.64 au.

This is comet outside Oort spike with original semimajor axis of about 2880–4770 au (uncertainty of one sigma was applied to all solutions). C/2016 K1 suffers moderate planetary perturbations while passing through the planetary system; these perturbations probably lead to escape the comet from the planetary zone on a hyperbolic orbit (see future barycentric orbits).
solution description
number of observations 315
data interval 2016 05 31 – 2017 04 01
data type perihelion within the observation arc (FULL)
data arc selection entire data set (STD)
range of heliocentric distances 2.34 au – 2.29 au (perihelion) – 3.64 au
type of model of motion NC - non-gravitational orbits for symmetric CO-g(r)-like function
data weighting YES
number of residuals 624
RMS [arcseconds] 0.45
orbit quality class 1b
orbital elements (heliocentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 2016 07 31
perihelion date 2016 07 13.38208761 ± 0.00041335
perihelion distance [au] 2.29153300 ± 0.00000350
eccentricity 1.00029432 ± 0.00001259
argument of perihelion [°] 18.254826 ± 0.000180
ascending node [°] 325.702876 ± 0.000068
inclination [°] 90.846345 ± 0.000102
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] -128.44 ± 5.50
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).
non-gravitational parameters
A1 [10-8au/day2] 0.85708 ± 0.42443
A2 [10-8au/day2] -1.4244 ± 0.2661
A3 [10-8au/day2] 0 (assumed)
m -2.00
n 3.000
k -2.6000
r0 [au] 10.000
α 0.0100