comets.venator.space

Venator

Early warning for newly discovered comets and unconfirmed objects.

Back to Contributors

P/2012 B1

P/2012 B1 (PANSTARRS)

CometClass Ecatalogued
Unknown

Not currently visible. Last report 4418 days ago at mag 21.2. Historic peak was mag 17.2. 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

21.2

Professional survey · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 60

Observations

63

Arc unknown

Last observation

4418d ago

Fri, 03 Oct 2014 10:33:35 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

2030-03-06

3.860 au

Peak window

2030-03-03 → 2030-04-16

COBS peak mag 17.2 on 2030-04-13 · perihelion 2030-03-06. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

17.2

COBS / analyzed peak 2030-04-13

Catalog ingest

14m 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

3.860 au

e

0.4110

i

7.61°

Ω

36.20°

ω

162.00°

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

  • P/2012 B1 (PANSTARRS)

    Informal: PANSTARRS

    P/2012 B1 · 2026-09-14 18:27:55 UTC → current

Discoverers

  • PANSTARRS

    Discoverer · parsed-name · 2026-09-14 18:27:55 UTC → current

Contributors

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