C/2016 N4 Master
more info


Comet C/2016 N4 was discovered on 15 July 2016 with Mobile Astronomical System of the Telescope-Robots (MASTER), that is about  months after its perihelion passage.

Some prediscovery images of this comet were found: taken on 11 September 2015 by ISON-SSO Observatory (Siding Spring).

Solutions given here are based on data spanning over 4.54 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 7.14 au – 3.199 au (perihelion) – 8.37 au.

NG orbits using full data-arc as well as independently using pre-perihelion and post-perihelion data are determinable.

See also Królikowska and Dones 2023.
solution description
number of observations 2075
data interval 2015 09 11 – 2020 03 26
data type perihelion within the observation arc (FULL)
data arc selection entire data set (STD)
range of heliocentric distances 7.14 au – 3.20 au (perihelion) – 8.37 au
type of model of motion NH - non-gravitational orbits for water sublimation from subsolar point
data weighting YES
number of residuals 4096
RMS [arcseconds] 0.43
orbit quality class 1a+
orbital elements (barycentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 1713 08 29
perihelion date 2017 09 16.08629154 ± 0.00022055
perihelion distance [au] 3.20052900 ± 0.00000162
eccentricity 0.99942796 ± 0.00000224
argument of perihelion [°] 55.964057 ± 0.000054
ascending node [°] 354.088749 ± 0.000004
inclination [°] 72.51328 ± 0.000007
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 178.73 ± 0.70
file containing 5001 VCs swarm
2016n4ks.bmi
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).
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.