C/2019 K7 Smith
more info
Comet C/2019 K7 was discovered on 30 May 2019, more than one year before its perihelion passage. Later a few pre-discovery observations were found from 8 and 9 October 2017. This comet was observed until 4 April 2024 (as in February 2025).

Comet had its closest approach to the Earth on 16 July 2020 (3.65 au), a month after its perihelion passage.

The preferred NG solution given here span over 6.49 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 8.64 au – 4.48 au (perihelion) – 10.95 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 more tight future orbit with semimajor axis of about 2,500 au (see future barycentric orbit).
solution description
number of observations 2745
data interval 2017 10 08 – 2023 06 03
data arc selection some part of the available data set (ST2)
range of heliocentric distances 8.64 au – 4.48 au (perihelion) – 9.2 au
detectability of NG effects in the comet's motion comet with determinable NG~orbit
type of model of motion GR - gravitational orbit
data weighting YES
number of residuals 5402
RMS [arcseconds] 0.42
orbit quality class 1a+
orbital elements (heliocentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 2017 09 04
perihelion date 2020 06 16.72228955 ± 0.00009087
perihelion distance [au] 4.47707753 ± 0.00000059
eccentricity 1.00141602 ± 0.00000109
argument of perihelion [°] 27.233945 ± 0.000012
ascending node [°] 307.892739 ± 0.000003
inclination [°] 103.506769 ± 0.000003
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] -316.28 ± 0.24
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).