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Early warning for newly discovered comets and unconfirmed objects.

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161P

161P/Hartley-IRAS

CometClass Ecatalogued
Southern hemisphere

Visible to modest telescopes (mag 12.5). Last report 1 days ago.

Active comet in COBS

JSONCSV

Right ascension

01h 40m 37s

J2000

Declination

−15° 28′ 35″

J2000

Estimated magnitude

12.5

Small telescope · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 76

Observations

42

80.00 d arc

Last observation

31h ago

Tue, 15 Sep 2026 15:42:05 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

2026-11-27

1.270 au

Peak window

2026-10-05 → 2026-11-30

COBS peak mag 11.1 on 2026-10-08 · perihelion 2026-11-27. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

11.1

COBS / analyzed peak 2026-10-08

Catalog ingest

12m ago

Venator last wrote this row 2026-09-16 22:00:03 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

1.270 au

e

0.8360

i

95.80°

Ω

1.47°

ω

47.10°

a

7.720 au

MOID

—

H

—

H0 / n

9.4 / 7.7

NEO score

—

PHA score

—

RMS

—

Elongation

147°

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

  • 161P/Hartley-IRAS

    161P · 2026-09-08 02:09:56 UTC → current

Discoverers

  • Hartley

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

  • Hartley-IRAS

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

  • IRAS

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

  • Hartley-IRAS

    Discoverer · parsed-name · 2026-09-08 17:27:23 UTC → 2026-09-15 02:51:49 UTC

Contributors

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