C/2018 N2 (ASASSN)

The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's notability guideline for astronomical objects. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted. Find sources: "C/2018 N2" ASASSN – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

This article is an orphan, as no other articles link to it. Please introduce links to this page from related articles; try the Find link tool for suggestions. (November 2024)

C/2018 N2 (ASASSN)

C/2018 N2 photographed from the Zwicky Transient Facility on 11 November 2019
Discovery[1]
Discovered by	All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN)
Discovery site	Cerro Tololo Observatory, Chile
Discovery date	7 July 2018
Designations
Alternative designations	CK18N020
Orbital characteristics[2]
Epoch	26 February 2020 (JD 2458905.5)
Observation arc	1,421 days (3.89 years)
Number of observations	4653
Perihelion	3.125 AU
Semi-major axis	–17,021.93 AU
Eccentricity	1.00018
Inclination	77.530°
Longitude of ascending node	25.258°
Argument of periapsis	24.397°
Last perihelion	10 November 2019
TJupiter	0.474
Earth MOID	2.1943 AU
Jupiter MOID	1.6361 AU
Physical characteristics
Comet total magnitude (M1)	9.6
Apparent magnitude	11.0 (2019 apparition)

C/2018 N2 (ASASSN) is the second of two comets discovered by the All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae after C/2017 O1. It is a hyperbolic comet that reached perihelion in November 2019, and as a result, it may never return to the inner Solar System.

The comet was first spotted as a magnitude 16.4 object by the ASAS-SN survey from images taken at the Cerro Tololo Observatory's 14-cm "Cassius" telescope between 7–11 July 2018.^[3][4] It made its closest approach to Earth on 19 October 2019 at a distance of 205 million mi (330 million km) before reaching perihelion on 11 November 2019.^[5][6] Although it did not go closer than 3.12 AU from the Sun at perihelion, observations of the comet did show some significant signs of activity, including a dust tail forming around July 2019.^[7] It was last observed as a magnitude 20+ object on May 28, 2022.^[2]

• C/2018 N2 at the JPL Small-Body Database
  • Close approach · Discovery · Ephemeris · Orbit viewer · Orbit parameters · Physical parameters