C/2018 F4 (PANSTARRS)

DEPARTED

Type: Hyperbolic Perihelion date: 4 December 2019 Perihelion distance (q): 3.4 Aphelion distance (Q) : n/a Period (years): n/a Eccentricity (e): 1.00 Inclination (i): 78.1 JPL orbit diagram COBS lightcurve PanSTARRS discovered a 20th magnitude asteroid in images taken with the 1.8m Ritchey-Chretien on 17 March 2018. It was placed on the PCCP as P10HIgx but no cometary activity was confirmed at the time. The object was classified as a Hyperbolic Asteroid by JPL. Evidence for a cometary nature came in April, when follow up images showed a coma and tail. The comet has a near perpendicular orbit. The Jupiter MOID is 0.60, but it is not currently near the planet. It could be a candidate for a second interstellar object as the latest orbit remains strongly hyperbolic. Taras Prystavski reported on comets-ml that there were two components in images taken on 12 September 2020. On 18 September Man-To Hui reported that images suggested that the separation had occurred at least two months previously. Syuichi Nakano suggests that the separation of the two components probably occurred around the time of perihelion. Observations (VEMag = visual equivalent magnitude) Date 10x10 mag Error VEmag Coma ' 13-Sep-20 16.57 0.05 13.9 0.9 21-Sep-20 16.60 0.09 15.1 0.6 09-Oct-20 16.80 0.05 14.3 0.9 08-Nov-20 17.06 0.06 14.1 0.9 17-Nov-20 14.7 0.8 12-Dec-20 15.8 0.6 10-Jan-21 17.0 0.4 12-Jan-21 17.2 0.4 31-Jan-21 16.6 0.4 10-Aug-21 18.7 0.4 06-Sep-21 19.6 0.4 13-Sep-21 19.2 0.4