About C/1999 U2 (SOHO)
C/1999 U2 (SOHO) is a rare comet. It swings within 0.049 AU of the Sun at perihelion.
It dives so close to the Sun that its surface is blasted to vapour in minutes. Most sungrazers do not survive the encounter.
Rare comet 48 EP
C/1999 U2 (SOHO)
Position computed live · sbdb
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Live ephemeris
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Score breakdown
· 4 badgesRare 50 pts → Epic
- Hyperbolic comet (one pass, then gone) +18
- Sungrazer +16
- Has a proper name +8
- Comet +6
Total score 48
2 more points to reach Epic.
Badges
- Comet · +6
- Sungrazer · +16
- Has a proper name · +8
- Hyperbolic comet (one pass, then gone) · +18
Trivia
What makes it special
- Sungrazer. It dives so close to the Sun that its surface is blasted to vapour in minutes. Most sungrazers do not survive the encounter.
What it actually is
- Its orbit family. On a hyperbolic orbit: it is moving too fast for the Sun's gravity to hold on to it.
- Closest approach. At its nearest it comes within 0.05 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Mercury.
- One-way trip. On a hyperbolic path — it will leave the Solar System and never return.
Standing on it
- Sunlight there. At closest approach the Sun beats down about 416 times harder than it ever does on Earth.
- Growing a tail. Once inside roughly the orbit of Mars the ice starts turning straight to gas, blowing out the coma and tail that make a comet a comet.
- 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.
Properties
- designation
- 1999 U2
- eccentricity
- 1.0167
- full name
- C/1999 U2 (SOHO)
- inclination
- 26.81
- mean motion deg day
- 0.1959
- moid au
- 0.0448
- name
- C/1999 U2 (SOHO)
- named
- yes
- orbit class
- HYP
- perihelion au
- 0.049
- semi major au
- -2.936
- sungrazer
- yes
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, C/1999 U2 (SOHO) 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 U2 (SOHO) is a rare comet
C/1999 U2 (SOHO) scores 48 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 2 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 4 science badges — Comet, Sungrazer, Has a proper name and Hyperbolic comet (one pass, then gone) — 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.