About C/2020 P4-B
C/2020 P4-B is an uncommon comet. It swings within 0.093 AU of the Sun at perihelion.
An Encke-type comet, on an unusually tight orbit that never even reaches out as far as Jupiter.
Uncommon comet 28 EP
C/2020 P4-B
Position computed live · sbdb
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Live ephemeris
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Score breakdown
· 3 badgesUncommon 34 pts → Rare
- Encke-type comet (never leaves Jupiter's reach) +22
- Comet +6
- Catalogue designation only +0
Total score 28
6 more points to reach Rare.
Badges
- Comet · +6
- Catalogue designation only
- Encke-type comet (never leaves Jupiter's reach) · +22
Trivia
What it actually is
- Its orbit family. An Encke-type comet, on an unusually tight orbit that never even reaches out as far as Jupiter.
- Closest approach. At its nearest it comes within 0.09 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Mercury.
- One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 1 years.
- How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 0.09 and 1.95 AU from the Sun.
Standing on it
- Sunlight there. At closest approach the Sun beats down about 116 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
- aphelion au
- 1.95
- designation
- 2020 P4-B
- eccentricity
- 0.9092
- full name
- C/2020 P4-B
- inclination
- 28.15
- mean motion deg day
- 0.9567
- moid au
- 0.135
- name
- C/2020 P4-B
- number only
- yes
- orbit class
- ETc
- perihelion au
- 0.093
- semi major au
- 1.02
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, C/2020 P4-B 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 P4-B is an uncommon comet
C/2020 P4-B 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, Catalogue designation only and Encke-type comet (never leaves Jupiter's reach) — 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.