C/2016 U1 (NEOWISE)

C/2016 U1 (NEOWISE)
Discovery
Discovered by NEOWISE project
Discovery date Friday 21 October 2016[1]
Orbital characteristics A
Epoch

2457723.5 (2016-Dec-01.0) TDB[1]

Reference: JPL 4 (heliocentric ecliptic J2000)[1]
Perihelion 0.3191 AU[1]
Semi-major axis -3477.5728 AU[1]
Eccentricity 1.0001[1]
Inclination 46.4292 deg[1]
Comet total
magnitude (M1)		 13.7[1]
Comet nuclear
magnitude (M2)		 20.0[1]

C/2016 U1 (NEOWISE) is a hyperbolic comet discovered 21 October 2016 by NEOWISE, the asteroid-and-comet-hunting portion of the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission.[1][2][3] The comet may be visible to skywatchers on Earth, at an estimated +6th magnitude (naked eye brightness),[4] during the first week of 2017 and will be closest to the Sun on 14 January 2017.[2][5] The comet, closest to the Earth on 13 December 2016 at 106,000,000 km (66,000,000 mi)[4] away, is not considered a threat to Earth.[2]

Orbit of C/2016 U1 (NEOWISE) on 14 January 2017, closest approach to the Sun.[1][3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Park, Ryan S.; Chamberlin, Alan B. (30 December 2016). "JPL Small-Body Database Browser (C/2016 U1 (NEOWISE))". JPL. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 Agle, DC; Cantillo, Laurie; Brown, Dwayne (29 December 2016). "NASA's NEOWISE Mission Spies One Comet, Maybe Two". NASA. Retrieved 29 December 2016.
  3. 1 2 Dickinson, David (28 December 2016). "Comet U1 NEOWISE—a possible binocular comet?". Phys.org. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
  4. 1 2 MacDonald, Fiona (31 December 2016). "A rare comet is zooming past Earth right now, and you should be able to see it with binoculars". ScienceAlert.com. Retrieved 31 December 2016.
  5. ↑ Williams, Matt (30 December 2016). "NASA'S NEOWISE Missions Spots New Comets". Universe Today. Retrieved 31 December 2016.
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