Comet C/2020 F8 (SWAN) reached its perihelion (the closest
point
on its orbit to the Sun) at 9.34 pm GMT on Tuesday 26 May 2020, when it
was
approximately 0.43 AU from the Sun (i.e. 43% of the distance between
the
Earth and the Sun, slightly outside the orbit of the planet Mercury). At
this time the comet was 0.57 AU from the Earth, in the
constellation of Perseus, having a magnitude of 6.6, making it visible with a small pair of binoculars.
Comet C/2020 F8 (SWAN), imaged on 2 May 2020 from the Chilean Andes. Damian Peach/Chilescope.
C/2020 F8 (SWAN) was discovered on 25 March 2020 by the SWAN camera on the Solar and Heliospheric Observertory
spacecraft. The designation C/2020 F8 (SWAN) indicates that it was the
eighth (8) comet (C/) discovered in the second half of March 2020
(period 2020 F), and that it was discovered by the SWAN camera (SWAN).
C/2020 F8 (SWAN) is a Parabolic Comet, which is to say a comet that
has been disrupted from an orbit in the Oort Cloud, and to be passing
through the Inner Solar System on a parabolic orbit that will probably
not bring it back again. This parabolic trajectory tilted
at an angle of 111° to the plain of the Solar System.
See also...
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