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Early warning for newly discovered comets and unconfirmed objects.

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51P

51P/Harrington

CometClass Ecatalogued
Unknown

Not currently visible. Last report 1449 days ago at mag 29.2. Historic peak was mag 13.9. 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

29.2

Professional survey · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 60

Observations

125

Arc unknown

Last observation

1449d ago

Fri, 30 Sep 2022 00:43:12 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

2029-11-16

1.690 au

Peak window

2022-09-10 → 2029-11-19

COBS peak mag 13.9 on 2022-09-13 · perihelion 2029-11-16. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

13.9

COBS / analyzed peak 2022-09-13

Catalog ingest

17h ago

Venator last wrote this row 2026-09-17 13:20:21 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

1.690 au

e

0.5430

i

5.43°

Ω

83.70°

ω

269.00°

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

  • 51P/Harrington

    51P · 2026-09-14 18:27:54 UTC → current

Discoverers

  • Harrington

    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.