| C/1997 L1 (Zhu-Balam) | |
| Discoverer: | David D. Balam Jin Zhu |
| Discovery Date: | 3–8 June 1997 |
| Epoch: | 22 August 1997 (JD 2450682.5) |
| Observation Arc: | 453 days (1.24 years) |
| Obs: | 213 |
| Eccentricity: | 0.9979 |
| Perihelion: | 4.899 AU |
| Aphelion: | 4,831.23 AU |
| Semimajor: | 2,418.07 AU |
| Period: | 118,907.85 years |
| Inclination: | 72.991° |
| Asc Node: | 233.299° |
| Arg Peri: | 346.365° |
| Tjup: | 0.805 |
| Earth Moid: | 3.9127 AU |
| Jupiter Moid: | 0.4171 AU |
| Last P: | 22 November 1996 |
| M1: | 6.5 |
| M2: | 8.5 |
| B Semimajor: | 1,108.24 AU --> |
| B Period: | 36,894.99 years --> |
Comet Zhu–Balam, formally designated C/1997 L1, is a long-period comet first identified by David D. Balam on June 8, 1997, and originally photographed by Jin Zhu on June 3, 1997. The comet is estimated at 10 kilometres in diameter with a period of approximately 36,895 years.
Given the orbital eccentricity of this object, different epochs can generate quite different heliocentric unperturbed two-body best-fit solutions to the aphelion distance (maximum distance) of this object. For objects at such high eccentricity, the Sun's barycentric coordinates are more stable than heliocentric coordinates. Using JPL Horizons the barycentric orbital elements for epoch 2015-Jan-01 generate a semi-major axis of 1,100 AU and a period of approximately 36,895 years.