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Venator

Early warning for newly discovered comets and unconfirmed objects.

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C/2020 K8

C/2020 K8 (Catalina-ATLAS)

CometClass Ecatalogued
Unknown

Not currently visible. Last report 2265 days ago at mag 31.5. Historic peak was mag 12.6. 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

31.5

Professional survey · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 60

Observations

18

Arc unknown

Last observation

2265d ago

Tue, 25 Aug 2020 05:02:24 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

2020-09-15

0.472 au

Peak window

2020-09-11 → 2020-09-18

COBS peak mag 12.6 on 2020-09-14 · perihelion 2020-09-15. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

12.6

COBS / analyzed peak 2020-09-14

Catalog ingest

15h ago

Venator last wrote this row 2026-11-06 14:20:23 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

0.472 au

e

1.0000

i

31.30°

Ω

181.00°

ω

260.00°

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

  • C/2020 K8 (Catalina-ATLAS)

    Informal: Catalina-ATLAS

    C/2020 K8 · 2026-09-14 18:27:59 UTC → current

Discoverers

  • ATLAS

    Discoverer · parsed-name · 2026-09-17 13:20:24 UTC → current

  • Catalina

    Discoverer · parsed-name · 2026-09-17 13:20:24 UTC → current

  • Catalina-ATLAS

    Discoverer · parsed-name · 2026-09-17 13:20:24 UTC → current

  • Catalina-ATLAS

    Discoverer · parsed-name · 2026-09-14 18:27:59 UTC → 2026-09-17 13:20:24 UTC

Contributors

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