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 2748
data interval 2017 10 08 – 2024 04 04
data type perihelion within the observation arc (FULL)
data arc selection entire data set (STD)
range of heliocentric distances 8.64 au – 4.48 au (perihelion) – 10.95 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 5432
RMS [arcseconds] 0.42
orbit quality class 1a+
previous orbit statistics, both Galactic and stellar perturbations were taken into account
no. of returning VCs in the swarm 5001 *
no. of escaping VCs in the swarm 0
no. of hyperbolas among escaping VCs in the swarm 0
previous reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 29.88 – 30.18 – 30.48
previous perihelion distance [au] 1102 – 1114 – 1123
previous aphelion distance [103 au] 64.5 – 65.2 – 65.8
time interval to previous perihelion [Myr] 5.96 – 6.06 – 6.15
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 5001 *
no. of escaping VCs in the swarm 0
no. of hyperbolas among escaping VCs in the swarm 0
previous reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 29.94 – 30.26 – 30.57
previous perihelion distance [au] 7.44 – 7.76 – 8.11
previous aphelion distance [103 au] 65.4 – 66.1 – 66.8
time interval to previous perihelion [Myr] 5.92 – 6.01 – 6.1
percentage of VCs with qprev < 10100