C/2020 F5 (MASTER)

Last updated
C/2020 F5 (MASTER)
C2020 F5 2021-09-27 image ZTF-sso-242-zr-fov-13arcmin.png
Comet MASTER photographed from the Zwicky Transient Facility on 27 September 2021
Discovery [1]
Discovered by MASTER
Discovery date28 March 2020
Orbital characteristics [2]
Epoch 27 March 2022 (JD 2459665.5)
Observation arc 1,663 days (4.55 years)
Earliest precovery date16 March 2020
Number of
observations
1,861
Aphelion ~1,760 AU
Perihelion 4.325 AU
Semi-major axis ~880 AU
Eccentricity 0.99509
Orbital period ~36,000 years (inbound)
~1,800 years (outbound)
Inclination 52.257°
350.53°
Argument of
periapsis
310.99°
Mean anomaly 0.0139°
Last perihelion23 March 2021
TJupiter 1.582
Earth MOID 3.515 AU
Jupiter MOID 0.162 AU
Comet total
magnitude
(M1)
7.2
Comet nuclear
magnitude (M2)
9.7

C/2020 F5 (MASTER) is a non-periodic comet discovered on 28 March 2020, [3] by the MASTER auto-detection system near San Juan, Argentina.

When first discovered there were dubious claims that it might be an interstellar object, [4] but now it is known to have a weakly near-parabolic eccentricity of just 0.99509. [2] Before planetary perturbations the comet had an orbital period of about 36,000 years.

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References

  1. D. W. Green (8 April 2020). "Comet C/2020 F3 (MASTER)". Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams. 4745.
  2. 1 2 "C/2020 F5 (MASTER) – JPL Small-Body Database Lookup". ssd.jpl.nasa.gov. Jet Propulsion Laboratory . Retrieved 4 January 2024.
  3. S. Yoshida. "C/2020 F5 (MASTER)". www.aerith.net. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  4. D. Oberhaus (17 April 2020). "So You've Found a Comet With a Weird Orbit". Wired. Retrieved 18 April 2020.