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Venator

Early warning for newly discovered comets and unconfirmed objects.

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78P

78P/Gehrels

CometClass Ecatalogued
Northern hemisphere

Visible to modest telescopes (mag 14.0). Last report 5 days ago.

Active comet in COBS

JSONCSV

Right ascension

06h 56m 24s

J2000

Declination

+18° 27′ 19″

J2000

Estimated magnitude

14.0

Small telescope · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 76

Observations

1318

80.00 d arc

Last observation

5d ago

Fri, 11 Sep 2026 11:45:26 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

2026-06-25

2.000 au

Peak window

2026-06-22 → 2026-08-19

COBS peak mag 13.9 on 2026-08-16 · perihelion 2026-06-25. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

13.9

COBS / analyzed peak 2026-08-16

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

2.000 au

e

0.4630

i

6.26°

Ω

210.00°

ω

193.00°

a

3.730 au

MOID

—

H

—

H0 / n

5.1 / 8.8

NEO score

—

PHA score

—

RMS

—

Elongation

70°

Reporting sources

  • COBS comet list

    ok

    Comet Observation Database magnitudes and perihelion data for the full COBS list (active and inactive).

  • COBS orbits

    ok

    Osculating elements and photometric parameters (H0, n) for active comets.

Name history

  • 78P/Gehrels

    78P · 2026-09-08 02:09:56 UTC → current

Discoverers

  • Gehrels

    Discoverer · parsed-name · 2026-09-08 17:27:23 UTC → current

Contributors

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