C/2023 F2 (SOHO)

C/2023 F2 (SOHO), also known as SOHO-4658, is a sungrazing comet that was discovered by Chinese astronomer, Hanjie Tan, from images taken by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory on 20 March 2023.

C/2023 F2 (SOHO)

Discovery[1]
Discovered by	SOHO Hanjie Tan
Discovery date	21 March 2023
Designations
Alternative designations	SOHO-4658
Orbital characteristics[2][3]
Epoch	21 March 2023 (JD 2460024.5)
Observation arc	1 day
Earliest precovery date	20 March 2023
Number of observations	164
Perihelion	0.035 AU
Eccentricity	1.01293
Inclination	64.655°
Longitude of ascending node	81.953°
Argument of periapsis	48.215°
Last perihelion	21 March 2023
Earth MOID	0.522 AU
Jupiter MOID	3.479 AU
Physical characteristics[3][4]
Comet total magnitude (M1)	20.8
Apparent magnitude	5.5 (2023 apparition)

Observational history

It is a member of the Meyer family, the second largest sungrazer group of comets after the Kreutz sungrazers, and is one of the brightest of 270 known of the group so far, having reached a peak magnitude of 6.5 during perihelion. This provided a possible opportunity to view it from ground observations, however attempts to locate the comet from the La Silla Observatory in April 2023 were unsuccessful.^[4]