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C/2024 L5 (ATLAS)

A comet that made a close encounter with Saturn in 2022 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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C/2024 L5 (ATLAS) is a comet that was discovered on 14 June 2024 as A117uUD by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS), South Africa, Sutherland. It will reach perihelion on 10 March 2025 at 3.432 AU (513.4 million km) from the Sun.[4][5]

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It is the second known Solar System comet to become interstellar after experiencing a planetary encounter.[5][1] C/1980 E1 (Bowell) reached a hyperbolic trajectory after an encounter with Jupiter on 9 December 1980.[6][7] C/2024 L5 experienced a very close encounter at 0.0048 AU with Saturn on 24 January 2022.[2][5][1] C/2024 L5 could be a former retrograde, inactive centaur.[8] The receding velocity of C/2024 L5 when entering interstellar space will be 2.8 km/s, moving towards the constellation of Triangulum.[8]

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Orbit

JPL Horizons shows an outbound eccentricity greater than 1[3] so it will leave the Solar System eventually as C/1980 E1 (Bowell) is doing, but prior to its flyby to Saturn its eccentricity was 0.88.[1]

See also

References

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