About C/1680 V1
C/1680 V1 is a rare comet. It swings within 0.006 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 40 EP
C/1680 V1
Position computed live · sbdb
Loading sky survey…
Live ephemeris
This object moves — fetching its current position…
Score breakdown
· 5 badgesRare 50 pts → Epic
- Sungrazer +16
- Far-flung orbit (a > 50 AU) +14
- Comet +6
- Steeply tilted orbit (i > 40°) +4
- Catalogue designation only +0
Total score 40
10 more points to reach Epic.
Badges
- Comet · +6
- Sungrazer · +16
- Catalogue designation only
- Far-flung orbit (a > 50 AU) · +14
- Steeply tilted orbit (i > 40°) · +4
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 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 0.01 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Mercury.
- One lap. A single orbit around the Sun takes it about 9368 years.
- Wild orbit. Its highly elliptical path swings between scorching and frozen each lap.
Standing on it
- Sunlight there. At closest approach the Sun beats down about 27.8 thousand 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
- 888.85
- designation
- 1680 V1
- eccentricity
- 1
- full name
- C/1680 V1
- inclination
- 60.68
- mean motion deg day
- 0.0001
- name
- C/1680 V1
- number only
- yes
- orbit class
- COM
- perihelion au
- 0.006
- semi major au
- 444.4
- sungrazer
- yes
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, C/1680 V1 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/1680 V1 is a rare comet
C/1680 V1 scores 40 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 10 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 5 science badges — Comet, Sungrazer, Catalogue designation only, Far-flung orbit (a > 50 AU) and Steeply tilted orbit (i > 40°) — 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.