About C/2022 B4
C/2022 B4 is a common comet. It swings within 1.38 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.
Common comet 20 EP
C/2022 B4
Position computed live · sbdb
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Live ephemeris
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Score breakdown
· 3 badgesCommon 22 pts → Uncommon
- Far-flung orbit (a > 50 AU) +14
- Comet +6
- Catalogue designation only +0
Total score 20
2 more points to reach Uncommon.
Badges
- Comet · +6
- Catalogue designation only
- 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 1.38 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Mars.
- One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 7490 years.
- How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 1.38 and 764.22 AU from the Sun.
Standing on it
- 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.
What's in a name
- Designation. Known only by its catalogue designation — no name yet.
Properties
- aphelion au
- 764.21
- designation
- 2022 B4
- eccentricity
- 0.9964
- full name
- C/2022 B4
- inclination
- 20.04
- mean motion deg day
- 0.0001
- moid au
- 0.42
- name
- C/2022 B4
- number only
- yes
- orbit class
- COM
- perihelion au
- 1.38
- semi major au
- 382.8
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, C/2022 B4 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/2022 B4 is a common comet
C/2022 B4 scores 20 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 2 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 3 science badges — Comet, Catalogue designation only 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.