C/2019 Y1 (ATLAS)

For other comets discovered by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, see Comet ATLAS.

C/2019 Y1
Near parabolic orbit has its perihelion above the northern ecliptic
Discovery
Discovered byAsteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS)
Orbital characteristics[1]
Epoch15 March 2020
(JD 2458924.06)
Observation arc187 days
Number of
observations		993
Aphelion669.1457±3.3432 AU
Perihelion0.837824 AU
Semi-major axis240.03275±0.16841 AU
Eccentricity0.996510
Orbital period3718.90±3.914 yr
Inclination73.34814°
31.366322°
Argument of
periapsis		57.49823°
Last perihelion2020-Mar-15
Earth MOID0.0829048 AU (12,402,380 km)
Jupiter MOID1.02611 AU
Comet total
magnitude (M1)		11.9±1.0
Comet nuclear
magnitude (M2)		13.8±0.5

C/2019 Y1 (ATLAS) is a comet with a near-parabolic orbit discovered by the ATLAS survey on 16 December 2019. It passed perihelion on 15 March 2020 at 0.84 AU from the Sun.[1] Its orbit is very similar to C/1988 A1 (Liller), C/1996 Q1 (Tabur), C/2015 F3 (SWAN) and C/2023 V5 (Leonard), suggesting they may be fragments of a larger ancient comet.

1 week motion across the sky
  1. ^ a b "Small-Body Database Lookup".