Comet C/2015 V2 (Johnson) will pass the Earth at a distance of
121 340 000 km
(0.81 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun) on Monday 5 June 2017, its closest approach to
the planet this year. Sadly the comet will not be
naked-eye-visible, achieving a maximum magnitude of about +8.27, which
means it should be visible with a small telescope or good pair of
binoculars; viewing will be made harder by the Moon at this time, with a Full Moon occuring four days after the comet's closest approach on Friday 9 June.
Image of C/2015 V2 (Johmson) taken on 25 March 2015 from Mayhill in New Mexico using the iTelescope 43-cm reflector. Jean-Claude Merlin/Sky & Telescope.
The calculated orbit of C/2015 V2 (Johnson). The Sky Live 3D Solar System Simulator.
C/2015 V2 (Johnson) has an unknown period
and a highly eccentric orbit that takes it from 0. AU from the Sun at
perihelion (60% of the distance between the Earth and the Sun) to an
unknown outer orbital point, somewhere beyond the Kuiper Belt, in the
Oort Cloud. It is considered to be a hyperbolic comet, an object from
the Oort Cloud (or possibly even the interstellar space beyond), that
has been nudged onto a trajectory that takes it through the Inner Solar
System by an encounter with another Oort Cloud body or possibly the
gravity of another star or other extra-Solar System object. Such comets
are not expected to make return visits to the Inner Solar System, but
rather are thrown out of the Solar System altogether by a gravitational
slingshot caused by their close encounter with the Sun.
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