Comet C/2023 P1 (Nishimura) makes its closest pass to the Earth.

Comet C/2023 P1 (Nishimura) will pass by the Earth at a distance of 125 363 000 km (83.8% of the distance between the Earth and the Sun), on Tuesday 12 September 2023. At this time the comet will be in the constellation of Leo, but will not be visible due to its proximity to the Sun.

Comet C/2023 P1 (Nishimura), imaged from the Trevinca-Skies remote-astronomy facility at A Veiga in Ourense Province, Spain, 0n 25 August 2023. Image is a composite made up of four 30 second exposures. Stars in background are slightly elongated due to their movement relative to the comet over this time interval. Wikimedia Commons.

Comet C/2023 P1 (Nishimura) was discovered on 12 August 2023 Japanese amateur astronomer Hideo Nishimura. The name C/2023 P1 (Nishimura) implies that it is a Comet (C/), that it was the 1st comet discovered in the first half of August 2023 (period 2023 P), and that it was discovered by Nishimura.

Comet C/2023 P1 (Nishimura) has an orbital period of 434 years and a highly eccentric orbit tilted at an angle of 132° to the plain of the Solar System, that brings it from 0.23 AU from the Sun at closest perihelion (23% of the distance between the Earth and the Sun, and considerably inside the orbit of Mercury) to 114 AU from the Sun at aphelion (114 times as far from the Sun as the Earth or a little under four times as far from the Sun as the planet Neptune, and slightly outside the Kuiper Belt). As a comet with a period of more than 200 years, C/2023 P1 (Nishimura) is considered to be a non-Periodic Comet, since it is unlikely that it would be identified as the same body on another visit to the Inner Solar System.

The orbit and position of Comet C/2023 P1 (Nishimura) on 12 September 2023.  JPL Small Body Database.

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