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Venator

Early warning for newly discovered comets and unconfirmed objects.

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73P

73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann

CometClass Ecatalogued
Unknown

Not currently visible. Last report 1392 days ago at mag 23.2. Historic peak was mag 10.6. Typical backyard telescopes will not show it. HST, JWST, or an 8–10 m class telescope might recover it with a good ephemeris.

Active comet in COBS

JSONCSV

Right ascension

—

J2000

Declination

—

J2000

Estimated magnitude

23.2

Professional survey · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 60

Observations

713

Arc unknown

Last observation

1392d ago

Sat, 14 Jan 2023 19:40:48 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

2027-12-23

0.915 au

Peak window

2022-08-23 → 2027-12-26

COBS peak mag 10.6 on 2022-08-26 · perihelion 2027-12-23. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

10.6

COBS / analyzed peak 2022-08-26

Catalog ingest

13h ago

Venator last wrote this row 2026-11-06 14:20:19 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

0.915 au

e

0.7010

i

6.22°

Ω

52.30°

ω

215.00°

a

—

MOID

—

H

—

H0 / n

—

NEO score

—

PHA score

—

RMS

—

Elongation

—

Reporting sources

  • COBS comet list

    ok

    Comet Observation Database magnitudes and perihelion data for the full COBS list (active and inactive).

Name history

  • 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann

    73P · 2026-09-14 18:27:55 UTC → current

Discoverers

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