BAA Comet Section : Comets discovered in 2026
Updated 2026 January 29
2026 A1 (MAPS)
The MAPS team (Alain Maury, Georges Attard, Daniel Parrott and Florian Signoret)
discovered an 18th magnitude comet with their Celestron 0.28-m f/2.2 Schmidt
astrograph at San Pedro de Atacama on January 13.15. They will be eligible for
the Edward Wilson award. Sam Deen quickly found pre-discovery observations back
to December 18, but the MPC refuse to use these in case they degrade their
orbit. The CBAT was more sensible and used the observations. [MPEC 2026-B129,
CBET 5658, 2026 January 20]. The comet is a member of the Kreutz group and
reaches perihelion on April 4. It is intrinsically faint and the MPC magnitude
parameters suggest that it might
only reach 3rd magnitude at that point and be visible in the solar coronagraphs.
However using a faster rate of brightening, which seems appropriate for Kreutz
group comets, it could become as bright as Venus though only at 3 degrees
elongation. Equatorially placed observers stand the best chance of seeing it
post perihelion.
2026 B1 (P/PANSTARRS)
PanSTARRS 2 discovered a 21st magnitude comet in images taken with the 1.8 m Ritchey-Chretien on
January 17.39. It was placed on the PCCP as P22kwkz. PanSTARRS soon found pre-discovery images and as the orbit improved were
able to track it ever further back, eventually finding PanSTARRS images as far back as 2013 April 15. Sam Deen was then able to find even
earlier images from the Sloan Survey on 2006 January 6 and 7.
[MPEC 2026-B202, CBET 5659, 2026 January 28/29] The comet is at perihelion at 2.5 au in 2026 August and has a period of 7.0 years. It will pass
0.2 au from Jupiter in 2057, when there will be a dramatic change in the orbit, most likely putting it beyond further observation at
least with current technology.
2026 B2 (Sun-Gao)
Guoyou Sun reported the discovery of this comet, made with Xing Gao, on January 20 on the comets-ml. They had found a 15th
magnitude object on January 19.00 and quickly noted it as a comet, though the MPC placed it on the NEOCP as GS25115.
They asked for follow up observations to secure the orbit, as it was at a relatively small solar elongation an area that they
had particularly been searching. Additional observations came in and the MPC moved the object to the PCCP.
[MPEC 2026-B203, B205, CBET 5660, 2026 January 28/29] The comet was at perihelion at 1.3 au in 2026 January. The elongation
will increase but the comet will fade. Originally B203 gave a hyperbolic orbit,
but this was surreptitiously edited and then B205 was issued giving the new
orbit, which now exactly matches what is on B203.
When observing a comet please try to forget how bright you think the comet
should be, what it was when you last viewed it, what other observers think
it is or what the ephemeris says it should be.
The equations for the light curves of comets that are currently visible
use only the raw observations and should give a reasonable prediction for
the current brightness. If the comet has not yet been observed or has
gone from view a correction for aperture is included, so that telescopic
observers should expect the comet to be fainter than given by the equation.
The correction is about 0.033 per centimetre. Values for the r parameter
given in square brackets [ ] are assumed. The form of the light curve is
either the standard m = H0 + 5 log d + K0 log r or the linear brightening
m = H0 + 5 log d + L0 abs(t - T + D0) where T is the date of perihelion,
t the present and D0 an offset, if L0 is +ve the comet brightens towards
perihelion and if D0 is +ve the comet is brightest prior to perihelion.
Observations of new comets in 2026 are given in ICQ format.
Full details of recently discovered objects will not appear until they are
available on the MPC web pages. The actual accuracy of preliminary orbits is often
(nearly always) much worse than the published
accuracy implies. In part this is because
each orbital solution is treated as a mathematical construct and does not take account of observational
error. JPL does publish the errors, whereas the MPECs do not.
Ephemerides of current comets are available on the CBAT
ephemeris page and positions of newly discovered comets can be found via
the
Potential comet confirmation page.
More information on LINEAR. A list of comets
discovered by selected search programs.
The Northumberland refractor
is the telescope that was used in the search for Neptune.
It now has a 0.30-m f20 doublet lens which gives a stellar limiting magnitude of around
15 at the zenith on good nights.
The Thorrowgood refractor was
built in 1864 and has a 0.20-m f14 doublet lens.
Published by Jonathan Shanklin. Jon Shanklin - jds@ast.cam.ac.uk