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Early warning for newly discovered comets and unconfirmed objects.

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156P

156P/Russell-LINEAR

CometClass Ecatalogued
Unknown

Not currently visible. Last report 1954 days ago at mag 19.5. Historic peak was mag 14.8. 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

19.5

Professional survey · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 60

Observations

321

Arc unknown

Last observation

1954d ago

Tue, 11 May 2021 21:07:12 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

2027-04-30

1.330 au

Peak window

2020-11-15 → 2027-05-03

COBS peak mag 14.8 on 2020-11-18 · perihelion 2027-04-30. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

14.8

COBS / analyzed peak 2020-11-18

Catalog ingest

8m ago

Venator last wrote this row 2026-09-16 23:00:05 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

1.330 au

e

0.6150

i

17.30°

Ω

35.30°

ω

0.53°

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

  • 156P/Russell-LINEAR

    156P · 2026-09-13 22:21:22 UTC → current

Discoverers

  • LINEAR

    Discoverer · parsed-name · 2026-09-15 02:51:49 UTC → current

  • Russell

    Discoverer · parsed-name · 2026-09-15 02:51:49 UTC → current

  • Russell-LINEAR

    Discoverer · parsed-name · 2026-09-15 02:51:49 UTC → current

  • Russell-LINEAR

    Discoverer · parsed-name · 2026-09-13 22:21:22 UTC → 2026-09-15 02:51:49 UTC

Contributors

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