C/2018 S3 TESS
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Comet C/2018 S3 was discovered on 22 September 2018 by Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), about two years after its perihelion passage; later 13 observations were found going more than 4.5 yr back to 29 June  2014 (all by Cerro Tololo-DECam). This comet was observed only by TESS and Cerro Tololo-DECam, and was last seen on 1 December 2018 by Cerro Tololo-DECam.

The solution given here is based solely on the data from Cerro Tololo-DECam and span over 4.79 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 9.53 au – 8.01 au (perihelion) – 9.59 au.

This Oort spike comet suffers tiny planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system that lead to a future orbit with greater semimajor-axis (see future barycentric orbit).
solution description
number of observations 17
data interval 2014 02 15 – 2018 12 01
data type perihelion within the observation arc (FULL)
data arc selection entire data set (STD)
range of heliocentric distances 9.53 au – 8.01 au (perihelion) – 9.59 au
detectability of NG effects in the comet's motion NG effects not determinable
type of model of motion GR - gravitational orbit
data weighting NO
number of residuals 34
RMS [arcseconds] 0.13
orbit quality class 1a+
orbital elements (barycentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 1705 03 24
perihelion date 2016 06 28.02433764 ± 0.00129506
perihelion distance [au] 8.00467042 ± 0.00001164
eccentricity 0.99931617 ± 0.00001002
argument of perihelion [°] 263.779082 ± 0.000070
ascending node [°] 25.035609 ± 0.000018
inclination [°] 78.419492 ± 0.000013
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 85.43 ± 1.25
file containing 5001 VCs swarm
2018s3a1.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.