About C/1966 T1 (Rudnicki)
C/1966 T1 (Rudnicki) is an epic comet. It swings within 0.419 AU of the Sun at perihelion.
On a hyperbolic orbit: it is moving too fast for the Sun's gravity to hold on to it.
Epic comet 50 EP
C/1966 T1 (Rudnicki)
Position computed live · sbdb
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Live ephemeris
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Score breakdown
· 4 badgesEpic 78 pts → Anomaly
- Hyperbolic comet (one pass, then gone) +18
- Passes within two lunar distances of Earth's orbit +18
- Has a proper name +8
- Comet +6
Total score 50
28 more points to reach Anomaly.
Badges
- Comet · +6
- Has a proper name · +8
- Hyperbolic comet (one pass, then gone) · +18
- Passes within two lunar distances of Earth's orbit · +18
Trivia
What it actually is
- Its orbit family. On a hyperbolic orbit: it is moving too fast for the Sun's gravity to hold on to it.
- Closest approach. At its nearest it comes within 0.42 AU of the Sun — inside the orbit of Venus.
- One-way trip. On a hyperbolic path — it will leave the Solar System and never return.
Standing on it
- Sunlight there. At closest approach the Sun beats down about 5.7 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.
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
- designation
- 1966 T1
- eccentricity
- 1.0004
- full name
- C/1966 T1 (Rudnicki)
- inclination
- 9.08
- mean motion deg day
- 0
- moid au
- 0.0006
- name
- C/1966 T1 (Rudnicki)
- named
- yes
- orbit class
- HYP
- perihelion au
- 0.419
- semi major au
- -1074
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, C/1966 T1 (Rudnicki) 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/1966 T1 (Rudnicki) is an epic comet
C/1966 T1 (Rudnicki) scores 50 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 28 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 4 science badges — Comet, Has a proper name, Hyperbolic comet (one pass, then gone) and Passes within two lunar distances of Earth's orbit — 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.