Where is it now
- Distance from Sun
- 5.369 AU
- True anomaly
- 185.48°
- Distance from Earth
- 5.512 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.
In the sky
- Right ascension
- 18h 22m 11s
- Declination
- -39° 59′ 57″
- Constellation
- Corona Australis
- Distance from Earth
- 5.52 AU
- Elongation from the Sun
- 76.21° — well clear of the Sun
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.
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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
- 3.035 AU
- Eccentricity
- 0.9592
- Inclination
- 58.14°
- Orbital period
- 5.29 years
- Perihelion
- 0.124 AU
- Aphelion
- 5.946 AU
- Longitude of ascending node
- 94.25°
- Argument of periapsis
- 14.79°
- Epoch · J2000
- 2457961.5
- Orbit class · JFC
- Jupiter-family comet (2 < T_J < 3)
- Earth MOID · 129.6 LD
- 0.3331 AU
- Tisserand (Jupiter)
- 1.942
Orbit quality
Orbit very well determined (uncertainty code 0).
- Observations used
- 669
- Data arc
- 12.23 years
- First observed
- 20 April 2012
- Last observed
- 14 July 2024
- Residual RMS
- 0.6 ″
- Solution · Shantanu Naidu
- 20 February 2025
Physical properties
- Mean radius
- 3.20 km
Visual & observation
- Absolute magnitude (H)
- 13.7
- Total magnitude M₁ · K₁ 8.8
- 13.7
Discovery & classification
- Discovered by
- Machholz, Donald E.
- Discovery date
- 12 May 1986
- Discovery site
- San Jose, California
Also known as 96P · 1986 VIII · 1986e · 1991 XII · 96P/1986 J2
Close approaches 20 on record
Top-down view of the ecliptic, Earth at the centre, for the 2139-06-13 23:27 UTC close approach of Machholz. Catalogue miss distance 69.7 LD · 2.68 × 10⁷ km. The curve is the geocentric path from 2139-06-10 to 2139-06-16, with a mark at UTC midnights and an arrow for the direction of motion. The circle is the Moon’s mean orbit; the Moon is plotted at closest approach. A ray shows the Sun’s direction. The labelled distance is the full separation. The drawn radius is the part that lies in the ecliptic plane. The path is approximate: a two-body Kepler propagation of the catalogue orbital elements, not a numerical integration. The Moon’s position is approximate. The inset is a heliocentric view and is approximate.
| When (UTC) | Body | Distance | Lunar distances | Relative speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2032-02-20 20:22:00 | Juptr | 1.5711 AU | 611.4 LD | 13.2 km/s |
| 2055-10-15 02:24:00 | Juptr | 0.8322 AU | 323.9 LD | 15.6 km/s |
| 2067-07-16 13:37:00 | Juptr | 1.2981 AU | 505.2 LD | 11.9 km/s |
| 2079-08-13 09:08:00 | Juptr | 1.5108 AU | 588.0 LD | 13.1 km/s |
| 2103-04-16 00:45:00 | Juptr | 0.9989 AU | 388.7 LD | 16.3 km/s |
| 2114-12-18 12:14:00 | Juptr | 1.2254 AU | 476.9 LD | 12 km/s |
| 2127-02-02 12:44:00 | Juptr | 1.4559 AU | 566.6 LD | 12.6 km/s |
| 2139-06-13 23:27:00 | Earth | 0.1792 AU | 69.7 LD | 41.4 km/s |
| 2150-11-09 11:47:00 | Juptr | 1.3522 AU | 526.2 LD | 17.7 km/s |
| 2162-05-20 17:27:00 | Juptr | 1.0741 AU | 418.0 LD | 12.4 km/s |
Next ten from today. 1 lunar distance = 384,400 km. Source: JPL close-approach data.
Sources
- visual properties: JPL SBDB (lookup)
- visual properties: JPL SBDB (lookup)
- visual properties: JPL SBDB (lookup)
- visual properties: JPL SBDB (lookup)
- physical properties: JPL SBDB (lookup)
- orbital elements: JPL SBDB