C/2022 A2 (PanSTARRS)

For other comets discovered by the Pan-STARRS survey, see List of Pan-STARRS discoveries.

Comet PanSTARRS, formal designation C/2022 A2, is a faint hyperbolic comet that passed through the inner Solar System in February 2023. It is one of many comets discovered by the Pan-STARRS survey.

C/2022 A2 (PanSTARRS)

Comet PanSTARRS photographed from the Zwicky Transient Facility on 12 January 2023
Discovery[1]
Discovered by	Robert J. Weryk
Discovery site	Haleakalā Observatory (Pan-STARRS)
Discovery date	10 January 2022
Designations
Alternative designations	CK22A020 P21q8AG
Orbital characteristics[2]
Epoch	25 April 2023 (JD 2460059.5)
Observation arc	935 days (2.56 years)
Earliest precovery date	9 January 2022
Number of observations	2,731
Perihelion	1.735 AU
Eccentricity	1.00038
Inclination	108.15°
Longitude of ascending node	171.58°
Argument of periapsis	88.368°
Last perihelion	18 February 2023
Earth MOID	1.435 AU
Jupiter MOID	0.918 AU
Comet total magnitude (M1)	8.3
Comet nuclear magnitude (M2)	11.8

Observational history

The comet was discovered as a 20th-magnitude object by the Pan-STARRS telescope of the Haleakalā Observatory on the night of 10 January 2022.^[3] Prediscovery images taken a day earlier allowed Shuichi Nakano to refine the first orbital calculations for the comet, which turned out to be hyperbolic.^[4]

Between 7 and 10 December 2022, Rob Matson had spotted the comet in images taken by the SWAN instrument aboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), indicating that it has brightened more rapidly than expected.^[3] Later on 19 December 2022, chemical production rates from the comet were measured by the TRAPPIST telescopes, detecting emissions of OH, CN, as well as C2 and C3-carbon compounds from its coma.^[5]

It made its first and last perihelion on 18 February 2023,^[6] making its closest approach to the Sun at a distance of 1.735 AU (259.6 million km). It is expected that the comet will be ejected from the Solar System due to its hyperbolic trajectory around the Sun.^[7]