C/2018 W2 Africano
more info
Comet C/2018 W2 was discovered on 27 November 2018, about ten months before its perihelion passage, and was last seen on 15 June 2020.

Solutions (GR and NG) given here span over 1.55 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 3.81 au – 1.46 au (perihelion) – 3.83 au; also orbit based on pre-perihelion data is presented.

This long-period comet of original semimajor axis of about 2,000 au suffers moderate planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system and these perturbations lead to escape the comet from the planetary zone on a hyperbolic orbit (see future barycentric orbits).
solution description
number of observations 1000
data interval 2018 11 27 – 2019 09 05
data arc selection data generally limited to pre-perihelion (PRE)
range of heliocentric distances 3.81 au – 1.46 au (perihelion) – 1.45 au
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 1979
RMS [arcseconds] 0.37
orbit quality class 1a
orbital elements (barycentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 1714 12 22
perihelion date 2019 09 06.62996256 ± 0.00002322
perihelion distance [au] 1.45700721 ± 0.00000132
eccentricity 0.99928119 ± 0.00000087
argument of perihelion [°] 158.055687 ± 0.000044
ascending node [°] 181.882972 ± 0.000028
inclination [°] 116.749287 ± 0.00001
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 493.35 ± 0.60
file containing 5001 VCs swarm
2018w2p5.bmi
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.