C/2022 N2 PanSTARRS
more info
Comet C/2022 N2 was discovered on 4 July 2022 by Pan-STARRS 2 (Haleakala), that is more than three years before its perihelion passage. Soon, the prediscovery images of this comet were found going back to the beginning of June 2022.

As in April 2025, this comet still is going to the perihelion point and will have its closest approach to the Earth on 9 November 2025 (2.95 au), almost four months after its perihelion passage.

Thus, the preferred NG solution given here is based on pre-perihelion data span over 2.71 yr in a range of heliocentric distances from 9.73 au to 4.09 au.

This Oort spike comet suffers moderate planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system that likely lead to escape this comet from the solar system on a hyperbolic orbit.
solution description
number of observations 1720
data interval 2022 06 02 – 2025 02 16
data type observed only before perihelion (PRE)
data arc selection entire data set (STD)
range of heliocentric distances 9.73 au – 4.09au
detectability of NG effects in the comet's motion comet with determinable NG~orbit
type of model of motion GR - gravitational orbit
data weighting YES
number of residuals 3393
RMS [arcseconds] 0.33
orbit quality class 1a+
orbital elements (barycentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 1722 02 03
perihelion date 2025 08 01.61542727 ± 0.00017657
perihelion distance [au] 3.80866263 ± 0.00000373
eccentricity 0.99987152 ± 0.00000118
argument of perihelion [°] 75.661863 ± 0.000069
ascending node [°] 319.710185 ± 0.000032
inclination [°] 5.50631 ± 0.000007
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 33.73 ± 0.31
file containing 5001 VCs swarm
2022n2pa.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.