APOD: Comet C/2023 E1 ATLAS near Perihelion (2023 Jul 14)

[APOD Robot]

Comet C/2023 E1 ATLAS near Perihelion

Explanation: Comet C/2023 E1 (ATLAS) was just spotted in March, another comet found by the NASA funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System. On July 1 this Comet ATLAS reached perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun. Shortly afterwards the telescopic comet was captured in this frame sporting a pretty greenish coma and faint, narrow ion tail against a background of stars in the far northern constellation Ursa Minor. This comet's closest approach to Earth is still to come though. On August 18 this visitor to the inner Solar System will be a mere 3 light-minutes or so from our fair planet. Based on its inclination to the ecliptic plane and orbital period of about 85 years C/2023 E1 (ATLAS) is considered a Halley-type comet.

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[johnnydeep]

That Minor Planet Center link (and even more so the Small Body Database link) show some impressively precise numbers. I wonder how accurate they really are. Examples:

Code: Select all

epoch					2023-02-25.0
epoch JD				2460000.5
perihelion date				2023-07-01.10688
perihelion JD				2460126.60689
argument of perihelion (°)		105.89384
ascending node (°)			164.57537
inclination (°)				38.31468
eccentricity				0.9469457
perihelion distance (AU)		1.0265959

And

Code: Select all

Element		Value			Uncertainty (1-sigma)			Units
e		0.9469425191715206	5.2055E-6	
a		19.34909423191104	.0019231				au
q		1.026614196258061	1.3599E-6				au
i		38.31387448785777	.00017467				deg
node		164.574750058461	6.9693E-5				deg
peri		105.8933175972542	.00014119				deg
M		359.3850141717715	9.1833E-5				deg

[zendae1]

So presently, Venus is a quite thin albeit bright crescent. I suppose it is then between Earth and Sun, not too many degrees off our orbit position. How close will this comet be to Venus?

[Chris Peterson]

So presently, Venus is a quite thin albeit bright crescent. I suppose it is then between Earth and Sun, not too many degrees off our orbit position. How close will this comet be to Venus?

Not close. At perihelion it was far above the plane of the Solar System (note the 38° inclination).

[orin stepanek]

It is indeed a pretty comet; Most are! I can see why it is called a
Hayleys type comet as the period is similar!