About C/2017 E4 (Lovejoy)
C/2017 E4 (Lovejoy) is a trash comet. It swings within 0.476 AU of the Sun at perihelion.
Its highly elliptical path swings between scorching and frozen each lap.
Trash comet 14 EP
C/2017 E4 (Lovejoy)
Position computed live · sbdb
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Live ephemeris
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Score breakdown
· 2 badgesTrash 15 pts → Common
- Has a proper name +8
- Comet +6
Total score 14
1 more point to reach Common.
Badges
- Comet · +6
- Has a proper name · +8
Trivia
How we found it
- Named. Notable enough to have earned a proper name, not just a catalogue number.
Cosmic context
- Wild orbit. Its highly elliptical path swings between scorching and frozen each lap.
- Tail. Its tail always points away from the Sun, never trailing behind its motion.
Properties
- eccentricity
- 0.999
- inclination
- 88.19
- name
- C/2017 E4 (Lovejoy)
- named
- yes
- orbit class
- COM
- perihelion au
- 0.4757
- semi major au
- 475.7
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, C/2017 E4 (Lovejoy) 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/2017 E4 (Lovejoy) is a trash comet
C/2017 E4 (Lovejoy) scores 14 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 1 point would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 2 science badges — Comet and Has a proper name — 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.