Comet 364P/PANSTARRS is a periodic comet with an orbital period of 4.9 years. It was discovered by the Pan-STARRS survey on February 13, 2013. It has a highly elliptical orbit with a perihelion distance of 0.8 astronomical units (AU) and an aphelion distance of 4.9 AU. The comet is classified as a Jupiter-family comet, meaning its orbit is controlled and highly influenced by Jupiter's gravity. The next perihelion passage happens on May 11, 2023, and the next one after that will happen in April 2028.

Find it in the Sky

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Comet 364P/PANSTARRS

Below the horizon. Rise: 2:21 | Tran: 11:02 | Set: 19:43

Alt: -8.50° Az: 20.10° Direction: North-North-East

Comet 364P/PANSTARRS is in the constellation of Taurus, at a distance of 866,843,542.0 kilometers from Earth. The current Right Ascension is 05h 09m 11s and the Declination is +27° 33’ 55” (apparent coordinates). The estimated magnitude of comet 364P/PANSTARRS, computed using JPL Horizons's data, is 26.34.

Finder Charts

The sky charts below show, at different resolutions, the position of comet 364P/PANSTARRS in the sky. Click on each chart to access the interactive star map tool.

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Star map showing the position of comet 364P/PANSTARRS in the constellation of Taurus on F, d Y. Field of view: 50x30 degrees. View interactive star map.

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Star map showing the position of comet 364P/PANSTARRS in the constellation of Taurus on F, d Y. Field of view: 15x9 degrees. View in interactive star map.

The following map uses photographic imagery from the Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) to realistically visualize the precise position of comet 364P/PANSTARRS against the stars in the background. The horizontal size of the map measures 60 arcminutes. Click on the image to access a more detailed full-screen view.

364P/PANSTARRS
RA: 05h 07m 36s
Dec: +27° 32’ 01”

Simplified high-resolution deep sky chart showing the current position of comet 364P/PANSTARRS. Field of view: 60 x 40 arcminutes. Go to the dedicated page

Equatorial Coordinates

Apparent

Right Ascension 05h 09m 11s

Declination +27° 33’ 55”

Hour Angle 13h 30m 09s

Sidereal Time 18h 39m 21s

J2000

Right Ascension 05h 07m 36s

Declination +27° 32’ 01”

Additional Information

Constellation Taurus

Observed Magnitude (COBS) n/a

Coma Diameter (COBS) n/a

Tail Length (COBS) n/a

Observation Date (COBS) n/a

Predicted Magnitude (JPL) 26.34

The observed values of Magnitude, Coma Diameter and Tail Length are derived from the most recent observation recorded at the Comet Observers Database. The value of Predicted Magnitude comes from the JPL Horizons ephemerides service and, in the case of comets, might be inaccurate given the highly dynamic and unpredictable behavior of these objects. When available, please refer to the Observed Magnitude value and consider the Predicted Magnitude as a directional indication. We acknowledge with thanks the comet observations from the COBS Comet Observation Database contributed by observers worldwide and used in this table to report recent comet observations.

Rise and Set Times

The following table lists today's rise, transit and set times of comet 364P/PANSTARRS from Greenwich, UK (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

Azimuth: 62.5° RISE 2:21

Max altitude: 66.1° TRANSIT 11:02

Azimuth: 297.6° SET 19:43

If you need to access this information frequently for your observations, you can create a simple customized Quick Access page, so that you can easily bookmark it in your browser favorites or add a shortcut to your mobile phones' home screen.

Distance from Earth

The distance of comet 364P/PANSTARRS from Earth is currently 866,843,542.0 kilometers, equivalent to 5.7944911779 Astronomical Units. Light takes 48m 11.479s to travel from comet 364P/PANSTARRS and arrive to us.

Distance Km 866,843,542.0

Distance AU 5.7944911779

Light Travel Time 48m 11.479s

The following graph shows the distance of comet 364P/PANSTARRS from Earth as a function of time. In the chart the distance is measured in Astronomical Units and the data is sampled with an interval of 1 day.

Chart of the distance of comet 364P/PANSTARRS from Earth in Astronomical Units (au)
Note: The values in this chart may not be entirely accurate around the time of closest approach for objects passing very close to Earth at high speed (e.g., Near-Earth Objects).

The value of the distance of 364P/PANSTARRS from Earth is also available as a real time updated value in the live position tracker.

Closest Approach to Earth

In the period between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2099, the closest approach of comet 364P/PANSTARRS to Earth happened on Saturday 8 April 2023 at a distance of 0.120732 Astronomical Units, or 18,061,227 kilometers:

Date Saturday 8 April 2023

Distance Kilometers 18,061,227

Distance AU 0.120732

Note: the values for the closest approach are computed with a sampling interval of 1 day.

Light Curve

The following chart shows the light curve of comet 364P/PANSTARRS, i.e., its apparent magnitude as a function of time. The curve is calculated using the latest ephemerides provided by JPL Horizons. The magnitude data is sampled with the interval of 2 days. Because of this sampling, inaccuracies may occur for objects that have large variations of brightness over a few days. For comets, large discrepancies can arise between the calculated brightness and the observations due to their highly dynamic, and not always precisely predictable, behavior.

Chart of the magnitude of comet 364P/PANSTARRS as a function of time

Orbital Elements

The following table lists the orbital elements of comet 364P/PANSTARRS at epoch February, 18 2020 00:00 UTC (JD: 2458898.5). Source: JPL Small-Body Database

Element	Symbol	Value
Orbit eccentricity	e	0.72258546
Orbit inclination	i	12.15008512°
Perihelion distance	q	0.79853752 AU 119,459,514 km
Aphelion distance	Q	4.95846081 AU 741,775,180 km
Semi-major axis	a	2.87849917 AU 430,617,347 km
Orbital period	period	4.8838 years 1,783.8059 days
Date of perihelion transit	Tp	June 24, 2018 2,458,293.8719 JD
Next perihelion transit		May 13, 2023 2,460,077.6777 JD
Argument of perihelion	peri	211.96613622523°
Longitude of the ascending node	node	46.21758462148°
Mean anomaly	M	122.02344132044°
Mean motion	n	0.20181568°/day

Orbit Visualization

The following chart is a 3D animated visualization of the orbit of comet 364P/PANSTARRS relative to the other major objects in the Solar System. You can access more advanced features using our 3D Solar System Viewer.

15 Days Ephemeris

The following table lists the ephemerides of comet 364P/PANSTARRS computed for the past and next 7 days, with a 24 hours interval. Apparent celestial coordinates are provided.

Date	Right AscensionR.A.	DeclinationDec.	MagnitudeMag	Constellation
Jul 01 2025	05h 02m 26s	+27° 19’ 13”	26.35	Taurus
Jul 02 2025	05h 03m 18s	+27° 21’ 06”	26.35	Taurus
Jul 03 2025	05h 04m 09s	+27° 22’ 58”	26.35	Taurus
Jul 04 2025	05h 05m 00s	+27° 24’ 49”	26.34	Taurus
Jul 05 2025	05h 05m 51s	+27° 26’ 40”	26.34	Taurus
Jul 06 2025	05h 06m 41s	+27° 28’ 31”	26.34	Taurus
Jul 07 2025	05h 07m 32s	+27° 30’ 20”	26.34	Taurus
Jul 08 2025	05h 08m 22s	+27° 32’ 09”	26.34	Taurus
Jul 09 2025	05h 09m 12s	+27° 33’ 57”	26.34	Taurus
Jul 10 2025	05h 10m 02s	+27° 35’ 45”	26.33	Taurus
Jul 11 2025	05h 10m 51s	+27° 37’ 33”	26.33	Taurus
Jul 12 2025	05h 11m 41s	+27° 39’ 20”	26.33	Taurus
Jul 13 2025	05h 12m 30s	+27° 41’ 06”	26.33	Taurus
Jul 14 2025	05h 13m 19s	+27° 42’ 51”	26.33	Taurus

Ephemeris Calculator

Compute the position of comet 364P/PANSTARRS for any date and time between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2099 and display the results on an interactive star map.