C/2017 K5 PANSTARRS
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Comet C/2017 K5 was discovered on 27 May 2017 with Pan-STARRS 1 telescope (Haleakala), that is almost 3 years before its perihelion passage. This comet was observed until 9 July 2020.

Comet will have its closest approach to the Earth on 2 July 2020 (6.688 au), a bit more than a 3 months after its perihelion passage.

The preferred solution given here is based on pre-perihelion data spanning over 3.12 yr in a range of heliocentric distances from 9.90 au – 7.68 au (perihelion) – 7.71 au.

This Oort spike comet suffers small planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system that likely lead to escape the comet from the planetary zone on a hyperbolic orbit (see future barycentric orbits).
solution description
number of observations 25
data interval 2017 05 27 – 2018 05 12
data arc selection data generally limited to pre-perihelion (PRE)
range of heliocentric distances 9.9 au – 8.74au
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 50
RMS [arcseconds] 0.35
orbit quality class 1b
orbital elements (barycentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 1709 09 19
perihelion date 2020 03 24.88292699 ± 0.02736166
perihelion distance [au] 7.66899516 ± 0.00033298
eccentricity 0.99948759 ± 0.00007712
argument of perihelion [°] 171.878495 ± 0.004049
ascending node [°] 102.364084 ± 0.000340
inclination [°] 82.296079 ± 0.000179
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 66.82 ± 10.05
file containing 5001 VCs swarm
2017k5a1.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.