long-period comet
Comet NEOWISE
The bright naked-eye comet of summer 2020, the most impressive in northern skies since Hale–Bopp.
- Distance from Earth today
- 2.96 billion km19.80 AU · light: 2 h 45 min
- Distance from the Sun today
- 2.82 billion km18.86 AU
- As of
- 4 November 2026position from NASA/JPL orbital elements
Where it is today
Top view of the plane of Earth’s orbit, compressed distance scale. Open on the big map with the time slider →
Facts
- Semi-major axis
- 408.9 AU (61.17 billion km)
- Perihelion
- 0.292 AU
- Aphelion
- 817.5 AU
- Orbital period
- 8,268 years
- Orbital eccentricity
- 0.999
- Orbital inclination
- 129.0°
- Perihelion passage
- 5 July 2020
- Minimum orbit distance from Earth’s orbit (MOID)
- 0.363 AU (54.23 million km)
Source of the figures: JPL Small-Body Database (public domain).
Discovery: 2020 – NEOWISE space telescope
Description
Comet NEOWISE was discovered in March 2020 by NASA's NEOWISE infrared space telescope, which surveys the sky for asteroids and comets. After surviving its close pass by the Sun in early July, it brightened into the finest comet seen from the Northern Hemisphere in more than two decades, with a curved dust tail and a fainter ion tail visible to the naked eye in the evening and morning twilight. It was widely photographed around the world, including from the International Space Station. NEOWISE is a long-period comet that will not return for thousands of years.