Pons-Brooks
12P/Pons-Brooks
Where is it now
- Distance from Sun
- 8.755 AU
- True anomaly
- 149.88°
- As of
- 17 September 2026
Two-body Kepler propagation — accurate to ~0.1% for major planets over decades, less so for highly-perturbed bodies. Use JPL Horizons for high precision.
In the sky
- Right ascension
- 16h 10m 08s
- Declination
- -31° 35′ 24″
- Constellation
- Scorpius
- Distance from Earth
- 9.03 AU
- Elongation from the Sun
- 71.21° — well clear of the Sun
Favours the southern hemisphere; low or below the horizon from far north.
From your location
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Two-body approximation, good to about a degree for the planets — enough to find the constellation and know whether it is up.
Orbital elements
- Semi-major axis
- 17.185 AU
- Eccentricity
- 0.9546
- Inclination
- 74.19°
- Orbital period
- 71.24 years
- Perihelion
- 0.781 AU
- Aphelion
- 33.589 AU
- Longitude of ascending node
- 255.86°
- Argument of periapsis
- 198.99°
- Epoch · J2000
- 2460211.5
- Orbit class · HTC
- Halley-type comet
- Earth MOID · 70.1 LD
- 0.1801 AU
- Tisserand (Jupiter)
- 0.598
Orbit quality
Orbit very well determined (uncertainty code 0).
- Observations used
- 8,059
- Data arc
- 71.96 years
- First observed
- 20 June 1953
- Last observed
- 7 June 2025
- Residual RMS
- 0.64 ″
- Solution · Davide Farnocchia
- 8 January 2026
Visual & observation
- Absolute magnitude (H)
- 5
- Total magnitude M₁ · K₁ 15
- 5
Discovery & classification
Also known as 12P
Sources
- orbital elements: JPL SBDB