C/1950 K1 Minkowski
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Comet C/1950 K1 was discovered on 19 May 1950 by Rudolf L.B. Minkowski (Palomar Observatory, California, USA). At the moment of discovery, the comet was almost 9 months before perihelion passage and it was last seen on 19 January 1953. [Kronk, Cometography: Volume 4].
This comet made its closest approach to the Earth on 23 March 1951 (1.774 au), that is over two months after perihelion passage.
Solution given here is based on data spanning over 2.652 yr in a range of heliocentric distances from 3.531 au through perihelion (2.572 au) to 7.258 au.
This Oort spike comet suffers small planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system that cause a bit tighter future orbit (see original and future barycentric orbits).
More details in Królikowska et al. 2014.

solution description
number of observations 254
data interval 1950 05 27 – 1953 01 19
data type perihelion within the observation arc (FULL)
data arc selection entire data set (STD)
range of heliocentric distances 3.53 au – 2.57 au (perihelion) – 7.26 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 466
RMS [arcseconds] 1.28
orbit quality class 1a
orbital elements (barycentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 2255 03 21
perihelion date 1951 01 14.57247147 ± 0.00039626
perihelion distance [au] 2.57371784 ± 0.00000139
eccentricity 0.99928354 ± 0.00000561
argument of perihelion [°] 192.416020 ± 0.000093
ascending node [°] 38.885979 ± 0.000048
inclination [°] 144.138428 ± 0.000031
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 278.37 ± 2.18
file containing 5001 VCs swarm
1950k1a5.bpl
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 future swarm including 5001 VCs. Each density map is given in logarithmic scale presented on the right in the individual panel.