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Venator

Early warning for newly discovered comets and unconfirmed objects.

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C/2026 B2

C/2026 B2 (Sun-Gao)

CometClass Ecatalogued
Southern hemisphere

Difficult — CCD / large telescope. Around mag 17.5. A large amateur CCD or a professional telescope is required. Historic peak was mag 12.4.

Active comet in COBS

JSONCSV

Right ascension

05h 39m 47s

J2000

Declination

−15° 58′ 19″

J2000

Estimated magnitude

17.5

CCD / citizen telescope · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 66

Observations

28

Arc unknown

Last observation

163d ago

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 02:38:24 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

2026-01-10

1.280 au

Peak window

2026-01-07 → 2026-01-13

COBS peak mag 12.4 on 2026-01-10 · perihelion 2026-01-10. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

12.4

COBS / analyzed peak 2026-01-10

Catalog ingest

15m ago

Venator last wrote this row 2026-09-17 00:30:04 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.

No tail measures stored yet for this object.

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

1.280 au

e

0.9980

i

59.60°

Ω

235.00°

ω

47.30°

a

518.000 au

MOID

—

H

—

H0 / n

9.7 / 4

NEO score

—

PHA score

—

RMS

—

Elongation

90°

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/2026 B2 (Sun-Gao)

    Informal: Sun-Gao

    C/2026 B2 · 2026-09-13 22:21:23 UTC → current

Discoverers

  • Sun-Gao

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

Contributors

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