C/2016 U1 (NEOWISE)
Infrared image of C/2016 U1 (NEOWISE) taken on 21 November 2016 | |
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | NEOWISE |
| Discovery date | 21 October 2016 |
| Orbital characteristics | |
| Epoch | 12 December 2016 (JD 2457734.5) |
| Observation arc | 83 days |
| Number of observations | 366 |
| Perihelion | 0.319 AU |
| Eccentricity | 1.00025 |
| Inclination | 46.435° |
| 61.429° | |
| Argument of periapsis | 162.75° |
| Mean anomaly | –0.001° |
| Last perihelion | 14 January 2017 |
| TJupiter | 0.489 |
| Earth MOID | 0.589 AU |
| Jupiter MOID | 0.811 AU |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Comet total magnitude (M1) | 13.1 |
| Comet nuclear magnitude (M2) | 19.5 |
| 6.8 (2017 apparition) | |
C/2016 U1 (NEOWISE) is a non-periodic comet discovered on 21 October 2016 by NEOWISE, the asteroid-and-comet-hunting portion of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission. The comet brightened to magnitude +6.8 and could be observed with binoculars, during the first week of 2017 and it was closest to the Sun on 14 January 2017.