C/2013 G8 PANSTARRS
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Comet C/2013 G8 was discovered on 14 April 2013 with Pan-STARRS 1 telescope (Haleakala), that is 7 months before its perihelion passage. It was observed until 20 August 2015.
Comet had its closest approach to the Earth on 1 August 2013 (4.318 au), about 3.5 months after discovery and 3.5 months before perihelion passage.
Solution given here is based on data spanning over 2.35 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 5.39 au – 5.141 au (perihelion) – 6.98 au.
This Oort spike comet suffers moderate planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system; these perturbations lead to a more tight future orbit (see future barycentric orbits).

solution description
number of observations 148
data interval 2013 04 14 – 2015 08 20
data type perihelion within the observation arc (FULL)
data arc selection entire data set (STD)
range of heliocentric distances 5.39 au – 5.14 au (perihelion) – 6.98 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 284
RMS [arcseconds] 0.21
orbit quality class 1a+
orbital elements (heliocentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 2013 11 04
perihelion date 2013 11 14.97628224 ± 0.00137921
perihelion distance [au] 5.14120313 ± 0.00000535
eccentricity 0.99834827 ± 0.00000512
argument of perihelion [°] 80.168788 ± 0.000151
ascending node [°] 241.021095 ± 0.000021
inclination [°] 27.614977 ± 0.000005
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 321.27 ± 1.00
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.