Comet C/2021 S3 (PANSTARRS) makes its closest approach to the Earth.

Comet C/2021 S3 (PANSTARRS) will pass by the Earth at a distance of 194 168 000 km (130% of the distance between the Earth and the Sun), on Friday 15 March 2024. At this time the comet will be in the constellation of Aquila, with a magnitude of 7.20, which is bright enough to be visible with a small telescope or large pair of binoculars.

An image of Comet C/2021 S3 (PANSTARRS) taken on 5 February 2023 with the iTelescope T30 Telescope at Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales. The image is a composite of three 180 second images. Taras Prystavski/Astrobin.

Comet C/2021 S3 (PANSTARRS) was discovered on 26 September 2021 by the PANSTARRS sky survey, located at Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii. The name C/2021 S3 (PANSTARRS) implies that it is a Comet (C/), that it was the 3rd comet discovered in the second half of September 2021 (period 2023 S), and that it was discovered by the PANSTARRS sky survey.

Comet C/2021 S3 (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. This parabolic trajectory is tilted at an angle of 58.53° to the plain of the Solar System.

The trajectory of Comet C/2021 S3 (PANSTARRS), and its position aon 15 March 2024. JPL Small Body Database.

See also...