About P/2013 AL76 (Catalina)
P/2013 AL76 (Catalina) is an uncommon comet. It swings within 2.047 AU of the Sun at perihelion.
A Jupiter-family comet, herded by Jupiter's gravity into a short orbit of under twenty years.
Uncommon comet 27 EP
P/2013 AL76 (Catalina)
Position computed live · sbdb
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Live ephemeris
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Score breakdown
· 4 badgesUncommon 34 pts → Rare
- Retrograde orbit +8
- Has a proper name +8
- Comet +6
- Jupiter-family comet +5
Total score 27
7 more points to reach Rare.
Badges
- Comet · +6
- Retrograde orbit · +8
- Has a proper name · +8
- Jupiter-family comet · +5
Trivia
Hard to believe
- Against the traffic. It goes round the Sun backwards, against the direction every planet and almost everything else travels.
What it actually is
- Its orbit family. A Jupiter-family comet, herded by Jupiter's gravity into a short orbit of under twenty years.
- Closest approach. At its nearest it comes within 2.05 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Jupiter.
- One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 16.5 years.
- How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 2.05 and 10.91 AU from the Sun.
Standing on it
- Sunlight there. Even at its closest the sunlight is only about 24% 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.
Properties
- aphelion au
- 10.91
- designation
- 2013 AL76
- eccentricity
- 0.6839
- full name
- P/2013 AL76 (Catalina)
- inclination
- 144.86
- mean motion deg day
- 0.0598
- moid au
- 1.1
- name
- P/2013 AL76 (Catalina)
- named
- yes
- orbit class
- JFC
- perihelion au
- 2.047
- semi major au
- 6.477
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, P/2013 AL76 (Catalina) 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 P/2013 AL76 (Catalina) is an uncommon comet
P/2013 AL76 (Catalina) scores 27 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 7 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 4 science badges — Comet, Retrograde orbit, Has a proper name and Jupiter-family comet — 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.