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Venator

Early warning for newly discovered comets and unconfirmed objects.

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P/2021 N1

P/2021 N1 (ZTF)

CometClass Ecatalogued
Northern hemisphere

Difficult — CCD / large telescope. Around mag 16.1. A large amateur CCD or a professional telescope is required. Historic peak was mag 12.9.

Active comet in COBS

JSONCSV

Right ascension

05h 00m 51s

J2000

Declination

+47° 02′ 04″

J2000

Estimated magnitude

16.1

CCD / citizen telescope · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 66

Observations

42

80.00 d arc

Last observation

8d ago

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

Perihelion

2026-07-28

0.966 au

Peak window

2026-06-29 → 2026-07-31

COBS peak mag 12.9 on 2026-07-02 · perihelion 2026-07-28. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

12.9

COBS / analyzed peak 2026-07-02

Catalog ingest

14m ago

Venator last wrote this row 2026-09-16 22:00:03 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

0.966 au

e

0.6760

i

11.50°

Ω

301.00°

ω

21.20°

a

2.980 au

MOID

—

H

—

H0 / n

16.0 / 6.9

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/2021 N1 (ZTF)

    Informal: ZTF

    P/2021 N1 · 2026-09-08 02:09:56 UTC → current

Discoverers

  • ZTF

    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.