About 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3-BQ
73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3-BQ is a common comet. It swings within 0.939 AU of the Sun at perihelion.
A Jupiter-family comet, herded by Jupiter's gravity into a short orbit of under twenty years.
Common comet 19 EP
73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3-BQ
Position computed live · sbdb
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Live ephemeris
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Score breakdown
· 3 badgesCommon 22 pts → Uncommon
- Has a proper name +8
- Comet +6
- Jupiter-family comet +5
Total score 19
3 more points to reach Uncommon.
Badges
- Comet · +6
- Has a proper name · +8
- Jupiter-family comet · +5
Trivia
What it actually is
- Its orbit family. A Jupiter-family comet, herded by Jupiter's gravity into a short orbit of under twenty years.
- Closest approach. At its nearest it comes within 0.94 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Earth.
- One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 5.3 years.
- How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 0.94 and 5.17 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
- Named. Notable enough to have earned a proper name, not just a catalogue number.
Properties
- aphelion au
- 5.17
- designation
- 73P-BQ
- eccentricity
- 0.6925
- full name
- 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3-BQ
- inclination
- 11.39
- mean motion deg day
- 0.1847
- moid au
- 0.0406
- name
- 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3-BQ
- named
- yes
- orbit class
- JFc
- perihelion au
- 0.939
- semi major au
- 3.054
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3-BQ 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 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3-BQ is a common comet
73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3-BQ scores 19 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 3 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 3 science badges — Comet, Has a proper name and Jupiter-family comet — 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.