C/2020 F8 (SWAN)
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Comet C/2020 F8 (SWAN) on May 1, 2020 from Indonesia | |
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) |
| Discovery date | 25 March 2020 |
| Designations | |
| SWAN01 | |
| Orbital characteristics | |
| Epoch | 2020-Apr-26 (JD 2458965.5) |
| Observation arc | 42 days |
| Orbit type | Oort cloud |
| Aphelion | ~1300 AU (outbound) |
| Perihelion | 0.4303 AU (64 million km) |
| Eccentricity | 0.99994 |
| Orbital period | Hyperbolic trajectory (inbound) ~17000 years (outbound) |
| Inclination | 110.8 |
| Last perihelion | 27 May 2020 |
| Earth MOID | 0.1937 AU (29 million km; 75 LD) |
| Jupiter MOID | 2.35 AU |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 0.4–0.8 km (0.25–0.50 mi) |
Mean diameter | 0.6 km (0.37 mi) |
| 4.7 (2020 apparition) | |
C/2020 F8 (SWAN), or Comet SWAN, is an Oort cloud comet that was discovered in images taken by the Solar Wind Anisotropies (SWAN) camera on 25 March 2020, aboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft. In the glare of twilight, Comet SWAN is difficult to find with 50mm binoculars even though it is still near the theoretical range of naked eye visibility. The comet has dimmed since May 3. As of perihelion, the comet is very diffuse, does not have a visible nucleus and is not a comet that will be noticed by inexperienced observers. It is likely that the comet disintegrated.