Comet C/2003 K4 LINEAR

Nongravitational nominal solution


   Observational arc:        2003 05 28 - 2006 11 17  
   Number of observations:   3658  
   RMS:                      0.54 arcsec (7233 residuals used, 2.8% rejected residuals ) 

Heliocentric osculating orbit at the standard epoch close to perihelion time (the same as in MWC08)

  Epoch        Perihelion time   q             e            ω              Ω            i      
  2004 10 13   20041013.716907   1.02362173    1.00030741   198.440524     18.675231   134.252834              
                    ± 0.000018   0.00000024    0.00000100     0.000015      0.000013     0.000005         

  NG parameters:   
   A1 = ( 0.75404 ± 0.01878)×10-8 AU/day2  
   A2 = (-0.39375 ± 0.00615)×10-8 AU/day2  
   A3 = (-0.09744 ± 0.00473)×10-8 AU/day2  

Heliocentric osculating orbit at the epoch close to the discovery date (used as starting orbit in this investigation)

  Epoch        Perihelion time   q             e            ω              Ω            i      
  2003 05 01   20041013.697087   1.02406282    1.00043474   198.404148     18.651645   134.247398              
                    ± 0.000026   0.00000050    0.00000056     0.000038      0.000009     0.000003         

  NG parameters:   
   A1 = ( 0.75404 ± 0.01878)×10-8 AU/day2  
   A2 = (-0.39375 ± 0.00615)×10-8 AU/day2  
   A3 = (-0.09744 ± 0.00473)×10-8 AU/day2  

Barycentric nominal original orbit (at 250 AU from the Sun)

  Epoch        Perihelion time   q             e             ω             Ω            i      
  1706 03 19   20041013.574168   1.02054069    0.99996864    198.554398    19.364915   134.285075              
                    ± 0.000048   0.00000051    0.00000055      0.000036     0.000010     0.000009         
   1/aori =  (+30.73 ± 0.54)×10-6 AU-1  

Barycentric nominal future orbit (at 250 AU from the Sun)

  Epoch        Perihelion time   q             e             ω             Ω            i      
  2301 07 18   20041013.152053   1.02157701    1.00012914    198.404326    19.428435   134.221523              
                    ± 0.000038   0.00000052    0.00000083      0.000043     0.000009     0.000010         
   1/afut = (-126.41 ± 0.81)×10-6 AU-1  

In the 17th edition of the Catalogue of Cometary orbits (2008):

Gravitational orbit (2244 obs.) with 0 < 1/aori < 10-4 AU-1.


The same comet in some other internet sources:


More details

Starting swarms of VCs...(heliocentric, osculating orbits)


Gravitational osculating swarm.

Nongravitational osculating swarm.


Original and future orbit at the 250 AU from the Sun.

Comet number 25 in the Table: Nongravitational Oort spike comets (26 objects)

  Name

GR
(1/a)ori
[10-8 AU/day2]
GR
(1/a)osc
[10-8 AU/day2]

epoch [TT]
GR
1/afut
[10-8 AU/day2]
RMSGR

[arcsec]
NG
(1/a)ori
[10-8 AU/day2]
NG
(1/a)osc
[10-8 AU/day2]

epoch [TT]
NG
1/afut
[10-8 AU/day2]
RMSNG

[arcsec]
NG parameters
A1
A2
A3
[10-8 AU/day2]
tau shift [day]
25 C/2003 K4 LINEAR
weighting
+32.08 ± 0.16 -423.17 ± 0.16
2003 05 01
-186.23 ± 0.16 0.62 +30.73 ± 0.54 -424.53 ± 0.54
2003 05 01
-126.41 ± 0.81 0.54 0.75404 ± 0.01878
-0.39375 ± 0.00615
-0.09744 ± 0.00473


Note: in the following plots black denotes returning clones while red denotes escaping ones.The nominal solution is located at the center of the green circle. Each plot have a header where date of calculation and some other parameters are coded. Also numbers of returning (B=shown+omitted), escaping (C=shown+omitted) and all (T=shown+omitted) Vcs are shown.


Past orbit, at previous perihelion :

2003k4amz.png
Past, gravitational, asynchronous.
2003k4amsz.png
Past, gravitational, synchronous.


2003k4nmz.png
Past, nongravitational, asynchronous.
2003k4nmsz.png
Past, nongravitational, synchronous.


Future orbits, at the escape border (no returning VCs) :

2003k4apz.png
Future, gravitational.
2003k4npsz.png
Future, nongravitational.