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 2123
data interval 2020 06 18 – 2024 04 04
data arc selection data generally limited to post-perihelion (POS)
range of heliocentric distances 4.48 au – 10.95au
type of model of motion NC - non-gravitational orbits for symmetric CO-g(r)-like function
data weighting YES
number of residuals 4194
RMS [arcseconds] 0.40
orbit quality class 1a
orbital elements (heliocentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 2017 09 04
perihelion date 2020 06 16.74596478 ± 0.00174429
perihelion distance [au] 4.47695468 ± 0.00000856
eccentricity 1.00133073 ± 0.00000775
argument of perihelion [°] 27.237992 ± 0.000324
ascending node [°] 307.892680 ± 0.000005
inclination [°] 103.506567 ± 0.000052
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] -297.24 ± 1.73
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).
non-gravitational parameters
A1 [10-8au/day2] 1.2812 ± 0.1254
A2 [10-8au/day2] 1.1042 ± 0.0944
A3 [10-8au/day2] 0.11371 ± 0.03607
m -2.00
n 3.000
k -2.6000
r0 [au] 10.000
α 0.0100