C/1944 K2 van Gent
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Comet C/1944 K2 was discovered on 23 May 1944 by Hendrik van Gent (Union Observatory, Johannesburg, South Africa). Soon, the prediscovery image from 15 May was found by van Gent. At the moment of discovery, the comet was about two months before perihelion passage, and it was last seen on 11 August 1945. [Kronk, Cometography: Volume 4].
This comet made its closest approach to the Earth on 20 May 1944 (1.913 au), that is three days before its discovery.
Solution given here is based on data spanning over 1.19 yr in a range of heliocentric distances from 2.288 au through perihelion (2.226 au) to 4.664 au.
This Oort spike comet suffers moderate planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system that lead to escape the comet from the solar systemon a hyperbolic orbit (see future barycentric orbits).
More details in Królikowska et al. 2014.

solution description
number of observations 36
data interval 1944 06 01 – 1945 08 11
data type perihelion within the observation arc (FULL)
data arc selection entire data set (STD)
range of heliocentric distances 2.29 au – 2.23 au (perihelion) – 4.66 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 56
RMS [arcseconds] 1.58
orbit quality class 1b
orbital elements (barycentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 1644 01 05
perihelion date 1944 07 18.50147337 ± 0.00168331
perihelion distance [au] 2.22564815 ± 0.00001298
eccentricity 0.99995373 ± 0.00002854
argument of perihelion [°] 337.096904 ± 0.000687
ascending node [°] 203.525912 ± 0.000191
inclination [°] 95.124917 ± 0.000157
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 20.79 ± 12.82
file containing 5001 VCs swarm
1944k2a1.bmi
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.
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.