About 271P/van Houten-Lemmon
271P/van Houten-Lemmon is a common comet. It swings within 4.25 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
271P/van Houten-Lemmon
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 4.25 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Jupiter.
- One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 18.4 years.
- How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 4.25 and 9.7 AU from the Sun.
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
- 9.7
- designation
- 271P
- eccentricity
- 0.3907
- full name
- 271P/van Houten-Lemmon
- inclination
- 6.86
- mean motion deg day
- 0.0535
- moid au
- 3.26
- name
- 271P/van Houten-Lemmon
- named
- yes
- orbit class
- JFc
- perihelion au
- 4.25
- semi major au
- 6.974
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, 271P/van Houten-Lemmon 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 271P/van Houten-Lemmon is a common comet
271P/van Houten-Lemmon 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.