About C/1999 S3 (LINEAR)
C/1999 S3 (LINEAR) is a rare comet. It swings within 1.895 AU of the Sun at perihelion.
A Halley-type comet: 20 to 200 years per lap, on a steeply tilted orbit that reaches far beyond the planets.
Rare comet 34 EP
C/1999 S3 (LINEAR)
Position computed live · sbdb
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Live ephemeris
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Score breakdown
· 4 badgesRare 50 pts → Epic
- Halley-type comet +16
- Has a proper name +8
- Comet +6
- Steeply tilted orbit (i > 40°) +4
Total score 34
16 more points to reach Epic.
Badges
- Comet · +6
- Has a proper name · +8
- Halley-type comet · +16
- Steeply tilted orbit (i > 40°) · +4
Trivia
What it actually is
- Its orbit family. A Halley-type comet: 20 to 200 years per lap, on a steeply tilted orbit that reaches far beyond the planets.
- Closest approach. At its nearest it comes within 1.9 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Jupiter.
- One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 82.4 years.
- How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 1.89 and 35.99 AU from the Sun.
Standing on it
- Sunlight there. Even at its closest the sunlight is only about 28% as strong as Earth's.
- Tail. Its tail always points away from the Sun, never trailing behind its motion — it is blown, not dragged.
By the numbers
- Made of. A comet is a dirty snowball: water ice, frozen carbon dioxide and dust, held together loosely enough that some simply crumble when the Sun warms them.
What's in a name
- Named. Notable enough to have earned a proper name, not just a catalogue number.
Properties
- aphelion au
- 35.99
- designation
- 1999 S3
- eccentricity
- 0.9
- full name
- C/1999 S3 (LINEAR)
- inclination
- 70.56
- mean motion deg day
- 0.012
- moid au
- 1.07
- name
- C/1999 S3 (LINEAR)
- named
- yes
- orbit class
- HTC
- perihelion au
- 1.895
- semi major au
- 18.94
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, C/1999 S3 (LINEAR) is best seen from a dark site away from city lights, and when it is above the horizon depends on your latitude and the time of year. Because it moves against the background stars, the live position panel on this page tracks where it is right now. The visibility panel above works out tonight's viewing window for your saved location.
Why C/1999 S3 (LINEAR) is a rare comet
C/1999 S3 (LINEAR) scores 34 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 16 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 4 science badges — Comet, Has a proper name, Halley-type comet and Steeply tilted orbit (i > 40°) — each earned for a real, measurable property of the object. Rarity on Spacedle is never random: the more remarkable an object's astrophysics, the more badges it collects, the higher it scores, and the rarer it ranks.