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Uncommon comet 28 EP

C/2018 X2 (Fitzsimmons)

Position computed live · sbdb

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Live ephemeris

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
28 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Far-flung orbit (a > 50 AU) +14
  • Has a proper name +8
  • Comet +6
Total score 28

6 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Comet · +6
  • Has a proper name · +8
  • Far-flung orbit (a > 50 AU) · +14

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Its orbit family. A long-period comet falling in from the Oort Cloud, where it spent billions of years in the deep freeze before something nudged it loose.
  • Closest approach. At its nearest it comes within 2.13 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Jupiter.
  • One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 1928 years.
  • How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 2.12 and 307.68 AU from the Sun.

Standing on it

  • Sunlight there. Even at its closest the sunlight is only about 22% 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
307.77
designation
2018 X2
eccentricity
0.9863
full name
C/2018 X2 (Fitzsimmons)
inclination
23.07
mean motion deg day
0.0005
moid au
1.15
name
C/2018 X2 (Fitzsimmons)
named
yes
orbit class
COM
perihelion au
2.126
semi major au
154.9

About C/2018 X2 (Fitzsimmons)

C/2018 X2 (Fitzsimmons) is an uncommon comet. It swings within 2.126 AU of the Sun at perihelion.

A long-period comet falling in from the Oort Cloud, where it spent billions of years in the deep freeze before something nudged it loose.

How to see it

Like any astronomical target, C/2018 X2 (Fitzsimmons) 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/2018 X2 (Fitzsimmons) is an uncommon comet

C/2018 X2 (Fitzsimmons) scores 28 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Comet, Has a proper name and Far-flung orbit (a > 50 AU) — 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.