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Early warning for newly discovered comets and unconfirmed objects.

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286P

286P/Christensen

CometClass Ecatalogued
Unknown

Not currently visible. Last report 1417 days ago at mag 25.7. Historic peak was mag 18.4. 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

25.7

Professional survey · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 60

Observations

14

Arc unknown

Last observation

1417d ago

Sun, 30 Oct 2022 20:38:23 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

2030-06-19

2.240 au

Peak window

2030-06-16 → 2030-07-01

COBS peak mag 18.4 on 2030-06-28 · perihelion 2030-06-19. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

18.4

COBS / analyzed peak 2030-06-28

Catalog ingest

10h ago

Venator last wrote this row 2026-09-16 13:20:17 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

2.240 au

e

0.4450

i

16.90°

Ω

283.00°

ω

23.20°

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

  • 286P/Christensen

    286P · 2026-09-14 18:27:56 UTC → current

Discoverers

  • Christensen

    Discoverer · parsed-name · 2026-09-14 18:27:56 UTC → current

Contributors

  • Kevin Hills

    CCD Observer · HIL04 · 10 reports · last 1417d ago

  • John Maikner

    CCD Observer · MAI01 · 2 reports · last 1461d ago

  • Giuseppe Pappa

    CCD Observer · PAP04 · 1 reports · last 1955d ago

  • Michael Jaeger

    Visual Observer · JAE · 1 reports · last 1430d ago

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