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Early warning for newly discovered comets and unconfirmed objects.

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438P/Christensen MPEC 2026-L50

438P/Christensen MPEC 2026-L50

CometClass Dcatalogued
Southern hemisphere

Visibility unknown. No recent magnitude. Large facilities may still recover it if an ephemeris exists.

MPC AllCometEls archive

JSONCSV

Right ascension

13h 41m 26s

J2000

Declination

−15° 19′ 49″

J2000

Estimated magnitude

—

Unknown

Confidence

41

Class D · priority 50

Observations

0

Arc unknown

Last observation

Not in feed

Feed does not publish an observer timestamp. Catalog ingested 11h ago.

Perihelion

2027-10-24

2.258 au

Peak window

2027-10-24

Using perihelion as a stand-in for peak. Dust comets often brighten a few days later.

Historic peak

—

No peak date yet

Catalog ingest

11h ago

Venator last wrote this row 2026-09-16 13:20:37 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

2.258 au

e

0.4141

i

8.28°

Ω

260.11°

ω

58.92°

a

3.854 au

MOID

—

H

14.5

H0 / n

14.5 / 4

NEO score

—

PHA score

—

RMS

—

Elongation

36°

Reporting sources

  • MPC AllCometEls

    ok

    Full MPC comet orbit catalog. Stored even when fainter than the UI default of mag 22.

Name history

  • 438P/Christensen MPEC 2026-L50

    438P/Christensen MPEC 2026-L50 · 2026-09-14 18:29:11 UTC → current

Discoverers

Contributors

  • No recent COBS visual or CCD reports linked yet.

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