C/2024 M1 (ATLAS)

DEPARTED

Type: Periodic Perihelion date: 20 November 2024 Perihelion distance (q): 1.7 Aphelion distance (Q) : 58.1 Period (years): 163.7 Eccentricity (e): 0.94 Inclination (i): 73.7 JPL orbit diagram COBS lightcurve Atlas The ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) team discovered an 18th magnitude object in images taken with the 0.5 m Schmidt at Rio Hurtado, Chile on 29 June 2024. It was initially reported as asteroidal, but found to be a comet in follow up observations by Hirohisa Sato four days later. There were pre-discovery observations from Cerro Tololo-DECam on 10 May 2022 and 6 June 2023. Observations (VEMag = visual equivalent magnitude) Date 10x10 mag Error VEmag Coma ' 27-Sep-24 17.4 0.4 30-Oct-24 16.6 0.4 06-Nov-24 16.1 0.4 13-Nov-24 15.9 0.4 22-Nov-24 15.6 0.4 30-Nov-24 14.8 0.4 08-Dec-24 14.4 0.4 19-Dec-24 15.2 0.4 03-Jan-25 16.0 0.4 16-Jan-25 16.9 0.4 26-Jan-25 17.1 0.4 13-Feb-25 18.0 0.4