comets.venator.space

Venator

Early warning for newly discovered comets and unconfirmed objects.

Back to Contributors

C/1991 B1

C/1991 B1 (Shoemaker-Levy)

CometClass Ecatalogued
Unknown

Not currently visible. Last report 12031 days ago at mag 34.2. Historic peak was mag 13.5. 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

34.2

Professional survey · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 60

Observations

332

Arc unknown

Last observation

12031d ago

Fri, 08 Oct 1993 13:26:24 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

1991-12-10

2.290 au

Peak window

1991-12-07 → 1991-12-25

COBS peak mag 13.5 on 1991-12-22 · perihelion 1991-12-10. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

13.5

COBS / analyzed peak 1991-12-22

Catalog ingest

9h ago

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

2.290 au

e

0.9930

i

77.50°

Ω

145.00°

ω

74.30°

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

  • C/1991 B1 (Shoemaker-Levy)

    Informal: Shoemaker-Levy

    C/1991 B1 · 2026-09-14 18:27:55 UTC → current

Discoverers

  • Shoemaker-Levy

    Discoverer · parsed-name · 2026-09-14 18:27:55 UTC → current

Contributors

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