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P/2008 WZ96

P/2008 WZ96 (LINEAR)

CometClass Ecatalogued
Southern hemisphere

Difficult — CCD / large telescope. Around mag 15.9. A large amateur CCD or a professional telescope is required. Historic peak was mag 13.2.

Active comet in COBS

Right ascension

17h 51m 43s

J2000

Declination

−29° 10′ 01″

J2000

Estimated magnitude

15.9

CCD / citizen telescope · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 66

Observations

3

4.00 d arc

Last observation

8d ago

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 19:57:21 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

2015-03-25

1.650 au

Peak window

2015-03-08 → 2015-03-28

COBS peak mag 13.2 on 2015-03-11 · perihelion 2015-03-25. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

13.2

COBS / analyzed peak 2015-03-11

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.

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

1.650 au

e

0.5100

i

6.96°

Ω

59.00°

ω

338.00°

a

3.360 au

MOID

H

H0 / n

9.0 / 4

NEO score

PHA score

RMS

Elongation

94°

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

  • P/2008 WZ96 (LINEAR)

    Informal: LINEAR

    P/2008 WZ96 · 2026-09-08 02:09:56 UTC → current

Discoverers

  • LINEAR

    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.