C/2002 O4 Hoenig
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Comet C/2002 O4 was discovered on 22 July 2002 by Sebastian Hoenig (Dossenheim, Germany), that is about two months before its perihelion passage. It was observed until 1 October 2002.
Observers reported that C/2002 O4 started to disintegrate a few days before the perihelion, then faded very rapidly prior to perihelion passage; and in mid-October 2002, it was no longer possible to see this comet. Sekanina (2002) speculated that the comet was undergoing a major outburst near the time of its discovery (27 July 2002) and that a major loss of mass triggered by this episode completed in mid-August. The data arc for this comet is extremely short (two months); however, NG effects are easy detectable in its motion.
Preffered solution given here is based on pre-perihelion data spanning over 0.118 yr in a range of heliocentric distances from 1.43 au to 0.895 au (8 September 2002).
Comet had its closest approach to the Earth on 10 August 2002 (0.650 au), about 2 weeks after its discovery.
The NG orbit obtained from the full data arc gives negative original 1/a, whereas the NG orbit derived using a shorter data arc (see preferred orbit) results in a closed original orbit with semimajor axis shorter than 5000 au, indicating that the orbit of this comet is poorly known.
See also Sekanina 2019 and Królikowska 2020.
Observers reported that C/2002 O4 started to disintegrate a few days before the perihelion, then faded very rapidly prior to perihelion passage; and in mid-October 2002, it was no longer possible to see this comet. Sekanina (2002) speculated that the comet was undergoing a major outburst near the time of its discovery (27 July 2002) and that a major loss of mass triggered by this episode completed in mid-August. The data arc for this comet is extremely short (two months); however, NG effects are easy detectable in its motion.
Preffered solution given here is based on pre-perihelion data spanning over 0.118 yr in a range of heliocentric distances from 1.43 au to 0.895 au (8 September 2002).
Comet had its closest approach to the Earth on 10 August 2002 (0.650 au), about 2 weeks after its discovery.
The NG orbit obtained from the full data arc gives negative original 1/a, whereas the NG orbit derived using a shorter data arc (see preferred orbit) results in a closed original orbit with semimajor axis shorter than 5000 au, indicating that the orbit of this comet is poorly known.
See also Sekanina 2019 and Królikowska 2020.
| solution description | ||
|---|---|---|
| number of observations | 1217 | |
| data interval | 2002 07 27 – 2002 10 01 | |
| data type | observed only before perihelion (PRE) | |
| data arc selection | entire data set (STD) | |
| range of heliocentric distances | 1.43 au – 0.78 au (perihelion) – 0.77 au | |
| detectability of NG effects in the comet's motion | comet lost close to perihelion or split comet | |
| type of model of motion | GR - gravitational orbit | |
| data weighting | YES | |
| number of residuals | 2418 | |
| RMS [arcseconds] | 0.52 | |
| orbit quality class | 2a | |
| previous orbit statistics, both Galactic and stellar perturbations were taken into account | ||
|---|---|---|
| no. of returning VCs in the swarm | 0 | |
| no. of escaping VCs in the swarm | 5001 | |
| no. of hyperbolas among escaping VCs in the swarm | 5001 | * |
| previous reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] | -823.94 – -803.19 – -781.48 | |
| previous perihelion distance [au] | 0.59 – 0.67 – 0.74 | |
| synchronous stop epoch [Myr] | -0.629 | S |
| percentage of VCs with qprev < 10 | 100 | |
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.
| previous orbit statistics, here only the Galactic tide has been included | ||
|---|---|---|
| no. of returning VCs in the swarm | 0 | |
| no. of escaping VCs in the swarm | 5001 | |
| no. of hyperbolas among escaping VCs in the swarm | 5001 | * |
| previous reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] | -823.05 – -802.36 – -780.71 | |
| previous perihelion distance [au] | 2.22 – 2.27 – 2.33 | |
| synchronous stop epoch [Myr] | -0.651 | S |
| percentage of VCs with qprev < 10 | 100 | |