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Venator

Early warning for newly discovered comets and unconfirmed objects.

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74P

74P/Smirnova-Chernykh

CometClass Ecatalogued
Unknown

Not currently visible. Last report 269 days ago at mag 18.8. 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

18.8

Professional survey · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 60

Observations

318

Arc unknown

Last observation

269d ago

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 22:33:35 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

2026-01-17

4.830 au

Peak window

2026-01-14 → 2026-01-20

COBS peak mag 18.2 on 2026-01-17 · perihelion 2026-01-17. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

18.2

COBS / analyzed peak 2026-01-17

Catalog ingest

2m ago

Venator last wrote this row 2026-11-07 03:00:09 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

4.830 au

e

0.0787

i

5.74°

Ω

45.90°

ω

58.70°

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

  • 74P/Smirnova-Chernykh

    74P · 2026-09-13 22:21:22 UTC → current

Discoverers

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