C/2024 E1 (Wierzchoś)

C/2024 E1 (Wierzchoś) is a hyperbolic Oort cloud comet, discovered on 3 March 2024 by Polish astronomer Kacper Wierzchoś. It will reach perihelion on 20 January 2026, when it could reach an apparent magnitude of +5.

C/2024 E1 (Wierzchoś)

Discovery[1]
Discovered by	Kacper Wierzchoś
Discovery site	Mount Lemmon Obs.
Discovery date	3 March 2024
Designations
Alternative designations	CK24E010[2]
Orbital characteristics[3]
Epoch	16 May 2024 (JD 2460446.5)
Observation arc	282 days
Earliest precovery date	15 February 2024[4]
Number of observations	294
Perihelion	0.5656 AU (84.61 million km)
Semi-major axis	>10,000 AU
Eccentricity	1.000026
Inclination	75.233°
Longitude of ascending node	108.117°
Argument of periapsis	243.657°
Longitude of perihelion	135.306°
Next perihelion	20 January 2026
TJupiter	0.238
Earth MOID	0.200 AU
Jupiter MOID	1.902 AU
Comet total magnitude (M1)	4.9

Discovery

During a routine Mt. Lemmon survey (G96) search on 3 March 2024, one of the scientists participating in the project, Kacper Wierzchoś, spotted a moving object in four, 30-second exposure images taken using an f/1.6 1.5 m (59 in) Cassegrain telescope, equipped with a 111.5 megapixel (10,560 x 10,560 pixel) CCD. It appeared as a 20th-magnitude object in the constellation Draco, about 2 degrees north of the star ν Dra.^[5] Since the discovery announcement, the Zwicky Transient Facility have reported that they obtained precovery images of the comet between 15 and 29 February 2024.^[4] The comet was reported to have a condensed coma about 4 arcseconds in diameter and a tail about 6 arcseconds long.^[1][2]

Perihelion

The comet will approach perihelion on 20 January 2026 around 18 UT.^[6] It will appear about 21 degrees from the Sun and will be visible from the Southern Hemisphere. Peak brightness will reach approximately +5 magnitude, meaning it could be visible through binoculars.^[7] It will be about 1.351 AU (202.1 million km; 125.6 million mi) from Earth.^[7]