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Early warning for newly discovered comets and unconfirmed objects.

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C/2016 U1

C/2016 U1 (NEOWISE)

CometClass Ecatalogued
Unknown

Not currently visible. Last report 3492 days ago at mag 38.0. Historic peak was mag 12.4. 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

38.0

Professional survey · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 60

Observations

135

Arc unknown

Last observation

3492d ago

Fri, 24 Feb 2017 10:33:36 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

2017-01-09

0.322 au

Peak window

2017-01-06 → 2017-01-12

COBS peak mag 12.4 on 2017-01-09 · perihelion 2017-01-09. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

12.4

COBS / analyzed peak 2017-01-09

Catalog ingest

13h ago

Venator last wrote this row 2026-09-16 13:20:18 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

0.322 au

e

1.0000

i

46.00°

Ω

61.80°

ω

163.00°

a

—

MOID

—

H

—

H0 / n

—

NEO score

—

PHA score

—

RMS

—

Elongation

—

Reporting sources

  • COBS comet list

    down

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

Name history

  • C/2016 U1 (NEOWISE)

    Informal: NEOWISE

    C/2016 U1 · 2026-09-14 18:27:58 UTC → current

Discoverers

  • NEOWISE

    Discoverer · parsed-name · 2026-09-14 18:27:58 UTC → current

Contributors

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