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Comet

LINEAR-Hill

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429P/LINEAR-Hill

Where is it now

Distance from Sun
4.288 AU
True anomaly
218.86°
Distance from Earth
4.889 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 LINEAR-Hill — 4.288 AU from the Sun LINEAR-Hill
Seen from above the ecliptic, north up, to scale. Grid: Earth's orbit in blue. LINEAR-Hill is 4.889 AU from Earth today (40.7 light-minutes).

In the sky

Right ascension
16h 13m 15s
Declination
-27° 36′ 17″
Constellation
Scorpius
Distance from Earth
4.89 AU
Elongation from the Sun
47.55° — near the Sun — look low at dusk or dawn

Favours the southern hemisphere; low or below the horizon from far north.

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
3.493 AU
Eccentricity
0.5067
Inclination
7.75°
Orbital period
6.53 years
Perihelion
1.723 AU
Aphelion
5.262 AU
Longitude of ascending node
325.15°
Argument of periapsis
72.07°
Epoch · J2000
2455363.5
Orbit class · JFc
Jupiter-family comet (P < 20 y)
Earth MOID · 290.9 LD
0.7476 AU
Tisserand (Jupiter)
2.89

Orbit quality

Orbit very well determined (uncertainty code 0).

Observations used
587
Data arc
13.52 years
First observed
25 August 2008
Last observed
2 March 2022
Residual RMS
0.75 ″
Solution · Otto Matic
4 March 2024

Visual & observation

Absolute magnitude (H)
12.1
Total magnitude M₁ · K₁ 25
12.1

Discovery & classification

Also known as 429P · 429P/2008 QP20 · 429P/2021 M1

Named

Close approaches 7 on record

When (UTC) Body Distance Lunar distances Relative speed
2065-03-02 02:45:00 Juptr 0.7622 AU 296.6 LD 3.6 km/s
2112-05-24 08:49:00 Juptr 0.8738 AU 340.1 LD 4.4 km/s
2148-06-02 09:01:00 Juptr 0.7327 AU 285.2 LD 3.5 km/s

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

Sources