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Early warning for newly discovered comets and unconfirmed objects.

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C/2022 QE78

C/2022 QE78 (ATLAS)

CometClass Ecatalogued
Southern hemisphere

Difficult — CCD / large telescope. Around mag 16.3. A large amateur CCD or a professional telescope is required. Historic peak was mag 14.9.

Active comet in COBS

JSONCSV

Right ascension

20h 11m 10s

J2000

Declination

−20° 24′ 34″

J2000

Estimated magnitude

16.3

CCD / citizen telescope · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 66

Observations

605

Arc unknown

Last observation

75d ago

Fri, 03 Jul 2026 20:59:04 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

2025-09-12

5.480 au

Peak window

2025-09-09 → 2026-01-16

COBS peak mag 14.9 on 2026-01-13 · perihelion 2025-09-12. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

14.9

COBS / analyzed peak 2026-01-13

Catalog ingest

14m 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

5.480 au

e

0.9950

i

36.70°

Ω

120.00°

ω

0.66°

a

1090.000 au

MOID

—

H

—

H0 / n

1.9 / 5.2

NEO score

—

PHA score

—

RMS

—

Elongation

127°

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

  • C/2022 QE78 (ATLAS)

    Informal: ATLAS

    C/2022 QE78 · 2026-09-13 22:21:23 UTC → current

Discoverers

  • ATLAS

    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.