About 76P/West-Kohoutek-Ikemura
76P/West-Kohoutek-Ikemura is an uncommon comet. It swings within 1.6 AU of the Sun at perihelion.
A Jupiter-family comet, herded by Jupiter's gravity into a short orbit of under twenty years.
Uncommon comet 23 EP
76P/West-Kohoutek-Ikemura
Position computed live · sbdb
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Live ephemeris
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Score breakdown
· 4 badgesUncommon 34 pts → Rare
- Has a proper name +8
- Comet +6
- Jupiter-family comet +5
- Tiny fragment (<1 km) +4
Total score 23
11 more points to reach Rare.
Badges
- Comet · +6
- Tiny fragment (<1 km) · +4
- 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 1.6 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Jupiter.
- One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 6.5 years.
- How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 1.6 and 5.34 AU from the Sun.
Sense of scale
- Sense of scale. In everyday terms it is about 6.3 football pitches across.
Standing on it
- Don't jump. Escape velocity here is only around 0.4 m/s. A determined jump would launch you off it and into your own orbit around the Sun.
- Tail. Its tail always points away from the Sun, never trailing behind its motion — it is blown, not dragged.
By the numbers
- Size. Roughly 660 metres across.
Properties
- aphelion au
- 5.34
- designation
- 76P
- diameter km
- 0.66
- eccentricity
- 0.5389
- full name
- 76P/West-Kohoutek-Ikemura
- inclination
- 30.48
- mean motion deg day
- 0.1525
- moid au
- 0.616
- name
- 76P/West-Kohoutek-Ikemura
- named
- yes
- orbit class
- JFc
- perihelion au
- 1.6
- semi major au
- 3.47
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, 76P/West-Kohoutek-Ikemura 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 76P/West-Kohoutek-Ikemura is an uncommon comet
76P/West-Kohoutek-Ikemura scores 23 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 11 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 4 science badges — Comet, Tiny fragment (<1 km), 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.