Comet C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS) will reach its perihelion (the closest point on its orbit to the Sun) on Sunday 19April 2026, when it will be approximately 0.50 AU from the Sun (i.e. half of the distance from the Sun to the planet Earth, which is about 74 649 000 km). At this time the comet will be 0.58 AU from the Earth, in the constellation of Pegasus, and may be naked eye visible in the east before dawn, although it will be best observed from the Southern Hemisphere, and will not be visible at all from northern parts of Europe, Asia, or North America.
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Should the comet survive this close encounter (which is likely, but not guaranteed), then it will reach perigee (the closest point on its orbit to the Earth) a week later, on 16 April 2026. At this point it will be 0.49 AU from us (i.e. 49% of the distance between the Earth and the Sun, or 73 303 000 km), in the constellation of Cetus but not visible.
Comet C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS) was discovered on 8 September 2025 by the 1.8 m Ritchey–Chrétien telescope of the PANSTARRS sky survey, located at Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii. The name C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS) implies that it is a Comet (C/), that it was the 3rd comet discovered in the first half of September 2025 (period 2025 R), and that it was discovered by the PANSTARRS sky survey.
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Comet C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS) is a Parabolic Comet, which is to say a comet that was disrupted from an orbit in the Oort Cloud, and is passing through the Inner Solar System on a parabolic orbit that will probably not bring it back again, and instead being ejected from the Solar System. This parabolic trajectory is tilted at an angle of 127.7° to the plain of the Solar System.
See also...
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