C/2020 R7 ATLAS
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Comet C/2020 R7 was discovered on 15 September 2020, two years before its perihelion passage. Later a series of observations were found from 3 December 2019. This comet was observed until 31 July 2024 (as in February 2025).

Comet had its closest approach to the Earth on 15 Julyl 2022 (2.18 au); about 2 months before its perihelion passage.

Currently, the preferred NG solution given here is based on data span over 4.66 yr in a range of heliocentric distances: 9.08 au – 2.96 au (perihelion) – 6.81 au. This comet shows large trends in the O-C distribution for a purely gravitational orbit. However, still some trends in [O-C] are visible for NG solutions based on full data arc (see solution 'c5' or 'n5'), trends substantially decrease for NG orbit based on pre-perihelion data atc (solution 'pc').

This Oort spike comet suffers moderate planetary perturbations during its passage through the planetary system that lead to a more tight future orbit (semimajor axis of about 1,800 au).
solution description
number of observations 403
data interval 2019 12 03 – 2022 09 15
data arc selection data generally limited to pre-perihelion (PRE)
range of heliocentric distances 9.08 au – 2.96au
type of model of motion NC - non-gravitational orbits for symmetric CO-g(r)-like function
data weighting YES
number of residuals 802
RMS [arcseconds] 0.30
orbit quality class 1a
orbital elements (barycentric ecliptic J2000)
Epoch 1720 10 11
perihelion date 2022 09 15.74891635 ± 0.00120095
perihelion distance [au] 2.95291057 ± 0.00000984
eccentricity 0.99990727 ± 0.00000469
argument of perihelion [°] 347.789098 ± 0.000233
ascending node [°] 268.198912 ± 0.000045
inclination [°] 114.815568 ± 0.000019
reciprocal semi-major axis [10-6 au-1] 31.40 ± 1.59
file containing 5001 VCs swarm
2020r7pc.bmi
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).
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.