About 321P/SOHO
321P/SOHO is a rare comet. It swings within 0.047 AU of the Sun at perihelion.
It dives so close to the Sun that its surface is blasted to vapour in minutes. Most sungrazers do not survive the encounter.
Rare comet 35 EP
321P/SOHO
Position computed live · sbdb
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Live ephemeris
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Score breakdown
· 4 badgesRare 50 pts → Epic
- Sungrazer +16
- Has a proper name +8
- Comet +6
- Jupiter-family comet +5
Total score 35
15 more points to reach Epic.
Badges
- Comet · +6
- Sungrazer · +16
- Has a proper name · +8
- Jupiter-family comet · +5
Trivia
What makes it special
- Sungrazer. It dives so close to the Sun that its surface is blasted to vapour in minutes. Most sungrazers do not survive the encounter.
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 0.05 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Mercury.
- One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 3.8 years.
- How far it roams. Its orbit swings between 0.05 and 4.81 AU from the Sun.
Standing on it
- Sunlight there. At closest approach the Sun beats down about 453 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.
Properties
- aphelion au
- 4.81
- designation
- 321P
- eccentricity
- 0.9807
- full name
- 321P/SOHO
- inclination
- 19.74
- mean motion deg day
- 0.2607
- moid au
- 0.086
- name
- 321P/SOHO
- named
- yes
- orbit class
- JFc
- perihelion au
- 0.047
- semi major au
- 2.427
- sungrazer
- yes
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, 321P/SOHO 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 321P/SOHO is a rare comet
321P/SOHO scores 35 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 15 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 4 science badges — Comet, Sungrazer, 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.