About C/2020 P3 (ATLAS)
C/2020 P3 (ATLAS) is a rare comet. It swings within 6.812 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.
Rare comet 42 EP
C/2020 P3 (ATLAS)
Position computed live · sbdb
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Live ephemeris
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Score breakdown
· 5 badgesRare 50 pts → Epic
- Far-flung orbit (a > 50 AU) +14
- Never comes near the Sun +10
- Has a proper name +8
- Comet +6
- Steeply tilted orbit (i > 40°) +4
Total score 42
8 more points to reach Epic.
Badges
- Comet · +6
- Has a proper name · +8
- Far-flung orbit (a > 50 AU) · +14
- Never comes near the Sun · +10
- Steeply tilted orbit (i > 40°) · +4
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 6.81 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Saturn.
- Wild orbit. Its highly elliptical path swings between scorching and frozen each lap.
- Steeply tilted. Its orbit is tipped 62° out of the flat plane the planets share — it spends most of its time well above or below them.
Standing on it
- 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
- 15910.76
- designation
- 2020 P3
- eccentricity
- 0.9991
- full name
- C/2020 P3 (ATLAS)
- inclination
- 61.88
- mean motion deg day
- 0
- moid au
- 6.38
- name
- C/2020 P3 (ATLAS)
- named
- yes
- orbit class
- COM
- perihelion au
- 6.812
- semi major au
- 7959
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, C/2020 P3 (ATLAS) 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/2020 P3 (ATLAS) is a rare comet
C/2020 P3 (ATLAS) scores 42 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 8 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 5 science badges — Comet, Has a proper name, Far-flung orbit (a > 50 AU), Never comes near the Sun 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.