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Early warning for newly discovered comets and unconfirmed objects.

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181P

181P/Shoemaker-Levy

CometClass Ecatalogued
Unknown

Not currently visible. Last report 7200 days ago at mag 23.8. Historic peak was mag 11.4. 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

23.8

Professional survey · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 60

Observations

41

Arc unknown

Last observation

7200d ago

Sun, 31 Dec 2006 10:47:59 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

2029-08-30

1.170 au

Peak window

2029-08-27 → 2029-09-02

COBS peak mag 11.4 on 2029-08-30 · perihelion 2029-08-30. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

11.4

COBS / analyzed peak 2029-08-30

Catalog ingest

11h ago

Venator last wrote this row 2026-09-16 13:20:16 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.

No tail measures stored yet for this object.

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

1.170 au

e

0.6990

i

17.50°

Ω

35.40°

ω

336.00°

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

  • 181P/Shoemaker-Levy

    181P · 2026-09-14 18:27:54 UTC → current

Discoverers

  • Shoemaker-Levy

    Discoverer · parsed-name · 2026-09-14 18:27:54 UTC → current

Contributors

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