Comet C/2019 U6 (Lemmon) reaches its perihelion (the closest
point
on its orbit to the Sun) at 7.40 pm GMT on Thursday 18 June 2020, when it will bet
approximately 0.91 AU from the Sun (i.e. 91% of the distance between
the
Earth and the Sun). At
this time the comet will be 0.87 AU from the Earth, in the
constellation of Hydra, having a magnitude of 6.4, which should may it visible with a small paur of binoculars.
Comet C/2019 U6 (Lemmon) seen from the Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales on 12 May 2020. José Chambó/Sky and Telescope.
Comet C/2019 U6 (Lemmon) was discovered on 31 October 2019 by the
University of Arizona's Mt. Lemmon Survey at the Steward Observatory on Mount
Lemmon in the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson. The designation C/2019 U6 (Lemmon) implies that it is a comet (C/), that it was the sixth comet-like body (6) discovered in the second half of October 2019 (period 2019 U - the
year being split into 24 half-months represented by the letters A-Y, with I being excluded), and that it was discovered by the Mount Lemmon Survey (Lemmon).
The orbit and current position of C/2019 U6 (Lemmon). The Sky Live 3D Solar System Simulator.
C/2019 U6 (Lemmon) has an estimated orbital period of 9253 years and a
highly eccentric
orbit tilted at an angle of 61.0° to the plain of the Solar System, that
brings it to 0.91 AU from the Sun at perihelion (91% of the distance
between the Earth and the Sun);
to 881 AU from the Sun at aphelion (881 times as far from the Sun as
the Earth or 29 times as far from the Sun as the planet Neptune, and some way beyond the Kuiper Belt. As such it is considered to be a Long Period Comet (comet with a period of over 200 years.
See also...
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