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Early warning for newly discovered comets and unconfirmed objects.

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C/2024 R4

C/2024 R4 (PANSTARRS)

CometClass Ecatalogued
Southern hemisphere

Difficult — CCD / large telescope. Around mag 15.4. A large amateur CCD or a professional telescope is required.

Active comet in COBS

JSONCSV

Right ascension

03h 59m 02s

J2000

Declination

−62° 32′ 19″

J2000

Estimated magnitude

15.4

CCD / citizen telescope · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 66

Observations

42

80.00 d arc

Last observation

2d ago

Mon, 14 Sep 2026 21:07:12 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

2027-10-26

4.410 au

Peak window

2027-10-23 → 2028-03-03

COBS peak mag 14.8 on 2028-02-29 · perihelion 2027-10-26. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

14.8

COBS / analyzed peak 2028-02-29

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

4.410 au

e

1.0000

i

95.40°

Ω

346.00°

ω

109.00°

a

-2070.000 au

MOID

—

H

—

H0 / n

10.1 / 1

NEO score

—

PHA score

—

RMS

—

Elongation

103°

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/2024 R4 (PANSTARRS)

    Informal: PANSTARRS

    C/2024 R4 · 2026-09-08 02:09:56 UTC → current

Discoverers

  • PANSTARRS

    Discoverer · parsed-name · 2026-09-08 17:27:23 UTC → current

Contributors

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