C/2020 H6 ATLAS
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Comet C/2020 H6 was discovered on 22 April 2020, about 1.3 yr before its perihelion passage. This comet was observed until 8 January 2024 (as in February 2025).

Comet had its closest approach to the Earth on 30 April 2021 (3.86 au); about six months before its perihelion passage.

The preferred NG solution ('bd') given here is based on data span over 3.72 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 6.22 au – 4.70 au (perihelion) – 7.80 au. Orbits based on pre-perihelion and post-perihelion data independently are also presented.

This Oort spike comet suffers moderate planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system that lead to a significantly more tight future orbit (semimajor axis of about 2,000 au).
solution description
number of observations 2108
data interval 2020 04 22 – 2024 01 08
data type perihelion within the observation arc (FULL)
data arc selection entire data set (STD)
range of heliocentric distances 6.22 au – 4.70 au (perihelion) – 7.8 au
type of model of motion NC - non-gravitational orbits for symmetric CO-g(r)-like function
data weighting YES
number of residuals 4166
RMS [arcseconds] 0.39
orbit quality class 1a+
previous orbit statistics, both Galactic and stellar perturbations were taken into account
no. of returning VCs in the swarm 713
no. of escaping VCs in the swarm 4288 *
no. of hyperbolas among escaping VCs in the swarm 0
previous reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 12.26 – 14.10 – 15.99
previous perihelion distance [au] 5900 – 9300 – 15000
previous aphelion distance [103 au] 120 – 130 – 150
synchronous stop epoch [Myr] -4.42 S
percentage of VCs with qprev > 20100
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).
previous_g orbit statistics, here only the Galactic tide has been included
no. of returning VCs in the swarm 2
no. of escaping VCs in the swarm 4999 *
no. of hyperbolas among escaping VCs in the swarm 0
previous reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 11.11 – 12.55 – 13.97
previous perihelion distance [au] 76.4 – 82.5 – 88.8
previous aphelion distance [103 au] 140 – 160 – 180
synchronous stop epoch [Myr] -3.86 S
percentage of VCs with qprev > 20100