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Early warning for newly discovered comets and unconfirmed objects.

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82P

82P/Gehrels

CometClass Ecatalogued
Unknown

Not currently visible. Last report 8958 days ago at mag 19.2. 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

19.2

Professional survey · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 60

Observations

24

Arc unknown

Last observation

8958d ago

Fri, 08 Mar 2002 13:26:24 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

2026-11-14

3.620 au

Peak window

2026-11-11 → 2027-01-17

COBS peak mag 18.3 on 2027-01-14 · perihelion 2026-11-14. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

18.3

COBS / analyzed peak 2027-01-14

Catalog ingest

7m ago

Venator last wrote this row 2026-09-16 23:00:05 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

3.620 au

e

0.1240

i

1.13°

Ω

239.00°

ω

226.00°

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

  • 82P/Gehrels

    82P · 2026-09-13 22:21:22 UTC → current

Discoverers

  • Gehrels

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

Contributors

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