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Venator

Early warning for newly discovered comets and unconfirmed objects.

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C/2017 K2

C/2017 K2 (PANSTARRS)

CometClass Ecatalogued
Northern hemisphere

Difficult — CCD / large telescope. Around mag 17.7. A large amateur CCD or a professional telescope is required. Historic peak was mag 6.0.

Active comet in COBS

JSONCSV

Right ascension

06h 19m 30s

J2000

Declination

+79° 17′ 46″

J2000

Estimated magnitude

17.7

CCD / citizen telescope · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 66

Observations

2125

Arc unknown

Last observation

26d ago

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 03:10:00 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

2022-12-17

1.800 au

Peak window

2022-12-14 → 2022-12-21

COBS peak mag 6.0 on 2022-12-18 · perihelion 2022-12-17. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

6.0

COBS / analyzed peak 2022-12-18

Catalog ingest

13m ago

Venator last wrote this row 2026-09-16 22:00:04 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

1.800 au

e

0.9980

i

87.70°

Ω

88.20°

ω

236.00°

a

1060.000 au

MOID

—

H

—

H0 / n

1.5 / 4

NEO score

—

PHA score

—

RMS

—

Elongation

86°

Reporting sources

  • COBS comet list

    ok

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

  • COBS orbits

    ok

    Osculating elements and photometric parameters (H0, n) for active comets.

Name history

  • C/2017 K2 (PANSTARRS)

    Informal: PANSTARRS

    C/2017 K2 · 2026-09-13 22:21:23 UTC → current

Discoverers

  • PANSTARRS

    Discoverer · parsed-name · 2026-09-13 22:21:23 UTC → current

Contributors

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