Back to Contributors

43P

43P/Wolf-Harrington

CometClass Ecatalogued
Unknown

Not visible to typical instruments. Current estimate mag 19.6. Historic peak was mag 16.4. Visual and most CCD amateur setups will not see it. Space telescopes or large ground telescopes are the remaining path.

Active comet in COBS

Right ascension

J2000

Declination

J2000

Estimated magnitude

19.6

Professional survey · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 60

Observations

773

Arc unknown

Last observation

98d ago

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 22:12:55 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

2025-08-04

2.440 au

Peak window

2025-08-01 → 2025-08-30

COBS peak mag 16.4 on 2025-08-27 · perihelion 2025-08-04. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

16.4

COBS / analyzed peak 2025-08-27

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

2.440 au

e

0.4350

i

9.33°

Ω

244.00°

ω

224.00°

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

  • 43P/Wolf-Harrington

    43P · 2026-09-13 22:21:22 UTC → current

Discoverers

  • Wolf-Harrington

    Discoverer · parsed-name · 2026-09-13 22:21:22 UTC → current

Contributors

140 of 100

1 / 3

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