C/2017 T1 (Heinze) is a hyperbolic comet that passed closest to Earth on 4 January 2018 at a distance of 0.22 AU (33 million km).
Discovery and observations
It was discovered on 2 October 2017 by Aren N. Heinze of the University of Hawaiʻi, using the 0.5-m Schmidt telescope at the Mauna Loa Observatory used for the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS). Perihelion was reached on 21 February 2018, and it was expected peak magnitude about 8.8. However, this intrinsically faint comet began to disintegrate around this time. It was last observed as a dim 16th-magnitude object on 23 April 2018.
Observation path
References
External links
- C/2017 T1 at the JPL Small-Body Database
