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Venator

Early warning for newly discovered comets and unconfirmed objects.

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C/2021 S3

C/2021 S3 (PANSTARRS)

CometClass Ecatalogued
Unknown

Not currently visible. Last report 363 days ago at mag 19.9. Historic peak was mag 7.5. 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

19.9

Professional survey · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 60

Observations

600

Arc unknown

Last observation

363d ago

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 19:40:48 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

2024-02-14

1.320 au

Peak window

2024-02-11 → 2024-02-17

COBS peak mag 7.5 on 2024-02-14 · perihelion 2024-02-14. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

7.5

COBS / analyzed peak 2024-02-14

Catalog ingest

15m ago

Venator last wrote this row 2026-09-16 22:00:04 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

1.320 au

e

1.0000

i

58.60°

Ω

216.00°

ω

6.83°

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/2021 S3 (PANSTARRS)

    Informal: PANSTARRS

    C/2021 S3 · 2026-09-13 22:21:23 UTC → current

Discoverers

  • PANSTARRS

    Discoverer · parsed-name · 2026-09-13 22:21:23 UTC → current

Contributors

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