comets.venator.space

Venator

Early warning for newly discovered comets and unconfirmed objects.

Back to Contributors

C/1970 K1

C/1970 K1 (White-Ortiz-Bolelli)

CometClass Ecatalogued
Unknown

Not currently visible. Last report 20556 days ago at mag 37.8. Historic peak was mag -11.6. Typical backyard telescopes will not show it. HST, JWST, or an 8–10 m class telescope might recover it with a good ephemeris.

Active comet in COBS

JSONCSV

Right ascension

—

J2000

Declination

—

J2000

Estimated magnitude

37.8

Professional survey · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 60

Observations

10

Arc unknown

Last observation

20556d ago

Sun, 07 Jun 1970 06:43:12 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

1970-05-14

—

Peak window

1970-05-11 → 1970-05-17

COBS peak mag -11.6 on 1970-05-14 · perihelion 1970-05-14. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

-11.6

COBS / analyzed peak 1970-05-14

Catalog ingest

12h ago

Venator last wrote this row 2026-09-16 13:20:18 UTC

Light curve

Brightness over time (V mag)

Gold = reported observations. Steel dashed family = ensemble (nominal / outburst / fade / disruption).

Tail length

Converted to degrees from COBS (d / arcmin / arcsec). Empty until analysis has pulled the archive.

Ensemble is a first-pass H0/n photometric model plus observed samples — not a trained ML forecast yet. The background analyzer walks the catalog one object at a time so COBS is not flooded. Disruption track rises after perihelion to stand in for solar-wind stripping.

Orbital elements

q

—

e

—

i

—

Ω

—

ω

—

a

—

MOID

—

H

—

H0 / n

—

NEO score

—

PHA score

—

RMS

—

Elongation

—

Reporting sources

  • COBS comet list

    ok

    Comet Observation Database magnitudes and perihelion data for the full COBS list (active and inactive).

Name history

  • C/1970 K1 (White-Ortiz-Bolelli)

    Informal: White-Ortiz-Bolelli

    C/1970 K1 · 2026-09-14 18:27:57 UTC → current

Discoverers

Contributors

Pips are observation weight on this object (log of report count). Hover for catalog-wide weight.