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Venator

Early warning for newly discovered comets and unconfirmed objects.

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P/2023 B1

P/2023 B1 (PANSTARRS)

CometClass Ecatalogued
Southern hemisphere

Not currently visible. Last report 964 days ago at mag 18.3. Historic peak was mag 17.0. 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

15h 53m 33s

J2000

Declination

−16° 33′ 48″

J2000

Estimated magnitude

18.3

Professional survey · COBS consensus

Confidence

33

Class E · priority 60

Observations

29

Arc unknown

Last observation

964d ago

Mon, 18 Mar 2024 04:55:00 GMT · COBS consensus

Perihelion

2023-05-09

6.140 au

Peak window

2023-02-23 → 2023-05-12

COBS peak mag 17.0 on 2023-02-26 · perihelion 2023-05-09. Window is those dates ±3 days — not a light-curve fit.

Historic peak

17.0

COBS / analyzed peak 2023-02-26

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.

No tail measures stored yet for this object.

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

6.140 au

e

0.1320

i

14.60°

Ω

78.60°

ω

82.10°

a

7.070 au

MOID

—

H

—

H0 / n

5.5 / 4

NEO score

—

PHA score

—

RMS

—

Elongation

20°

Reporting sources

  • COBS comet list

    ok

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

  • COBS orbits

    ok

    Osculating elements and photometric parameters (H0, n) for active comets.

Name history

  • P/2023 B1 (PANSTARRS)

    Informal: PANSTARRS

    P/2023 B1 · 2026-09-13 22:21:23 UTC → current

Discoverers

  • PANSTARRS

    Discoverer · parsed-name · 2026-09-13 22:21:23 UTC → current

Contributors

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