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Comet Near-Earth

Christensen

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210P/Christensen

Where is it now

Distance from Sun
3.757 AU
True anomaly
153.11°
Distance from Earth
4.607 AU
As of
11 October 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.

Orbit of Mercury Orbit of Venus Orbit of Mars Sun Earth — 0.998 AU from the Sun Earth Christensen — 3.757 AU from the Sun Christensen
Seen from above the ecliptic, north up, to scale. Grid: Earth's orbit in blue. Christensen is 4.607 AU from Earth today (38.3 light-minutes).

In the sky

Right ascension
15h 01m 50s
Declination
-11° 28′ 35″
Constellation
Libra
Distance from Earth
4.62 AU
Elongation from the Sun
27.74° — near the Sun — look low at dusk or dawn

Visible from both hemispheres.

From your location

See how high it is right now, whether it is up after civil twilight, and when it rises and sets where you are.

How do I find my coordinates?

Google Maps on a computer

  1. Right-click the spot where you'll be observing.
  2. The first line of the menu is the coordinates, e.g. 51.50722, -0.12758 — click it and they're copied.
  3. Paste them above.

Google Maps on a phone

  1. Press and hold the spot to drop a pin.
  2. The coordinates appear in the search bar (or on the pin's card) — tap to copy, then paste above.

A full Google Maps link works too, but the short maps.app.goo.gl share links don't carry coordinates — copy the numbers instead. We round to about a kilometre; that's all the sky calculation needs.

Know your what3words address? Paste it, e.g. ///filled.count.soap. This is optional — the three words are sent to what3words to convert them, and we don't store the address or the result.

Your location stays in your browser and is sent only for this calculation. Using a what3words address is optional; if you do, the three words go to what3words to be converted and we don't record them. Set a location first, then you can save an email alert for this object. See our privacy policy.

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
3.162 AU
Eccentricity
0.8341
Inclination
10.29°
Orbital period
5.62 years
Perihelion
0.525 AU
Aphelion
5.799 AU
Longitude of ascending node
93.8°
Argument of periapsis
345.93°
Epoch · J2000
2460583.5
Orbit class · JFc
Jupiter-family comet (P < 20 y)
Earth MOID · 67.1 LD
0.1725 AU
Tisserand (Jupiter)
2.492

Orbit quality

Orbit very well determined (uncertainty code 1).

Observations used
262
Data arc
5.86 years
First observed
11 July 2020
Last observed
22 May 2026
Residual RMS
0.69 ″
Solution · Shantanu Naidu
8 September 2026

Visual & observation

Absolute magnitude (H)
14.2
Total magnitude M₁ · K₁ 15
14.2

Discovery & classification

Also known as 210P · 210P/2003 K2 · 210P/2008 X4

Near-Earth Object Named

Close approaches 20 on record

When (UTC) Body Distance Lunar distances Relative speed
2048-04-18 03:36:00 Venus 0.1461 AU 56.9 LD 29.3 km/s
2054-01-10 11:36:00 Venus 0.1445 AU 56.2 LD 19.4 km/s
2066-08-31 14:31:00 Juptr 1.1288 AU 439.3 LD 12.2 km/s
2076-11-05 06:45:00 Venus 0.1375 AU 53.5 LD 28.1 km/s
2078-05-31 10:49:00 Juptr 0.5153 AU 200.5 LD 10.2 km/s
2090-04-08 06:18:00 Juptr 0.5686 AU 221.3 LD 10.3 km/s
2102-04-15 09:33:00 Juptr 1.3905 AU 541.2 LD 12.9 km/s
2162-03-13 03:38:00 Juptr 1.6631 AU 647.2 LD 13.3 km/s
2174-04-08 04:05:00 Juptr 0.7084 AU 275.7 LD 10.5 km/s
2186-02-23 06:35:00 Juptr 0.5496 AU 213.9 LD 10.1 km/s

Next ten from today. 1 lunar distance = 384,400 km. Source: JPL close-approach data.

Sources