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Early warning for newly discovered comets and unconfirmed objects.

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C/2001 K3

C/2001 K3 (Skiff)

CometClass Ecatalogued
Unknown

Not currently visible. Last report 9104 days ago at mag 33.4. Historic peak was mag 15.3. 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

33.4

Professional survey · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 60

Observations

18

Arc unknown

Last observation

9104d ago

Sat, 13 Oct 2001 18:28:47 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

2001-04-26

3.090 au

Peak window

2001-04-23 → 2001-07-08

COBS peak mag 15.3 on 2001-07-05 · perihelion 2001-04-26. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

15.3

COBS / analyzed peak 2001-07-05

Catalog ingest

12h ago

Venator last wrote this row 2026-09-16 13:20:17 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

3.090 au

e

0.9990

i

52.20°

Ω

290.00°

ω

3.67°

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/2001 K3 (Skiff)

    Informal: Skiff

    C/2001 K3 · 2026-09-14 18:27:57 UTC → current

Discoverers

  • Skiff

    Discoverer · parsed-name · 2026-09-14 18:27:57 UTC → current

Contributors

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