C/2020 F5 (MASTER) is a long period comet discovered on 28 March 2020,[1] by the MASTER auto-detection system near San Juan, Argentina. When first discovered there were dubious claims that it might be an interstellar object,[2] but now it is known to have a common weakly hyperbolic eccentricity of just 1.0007.[3] Before planetary perturbations the comet had an orbital period of about 36000 years.

C/2020 F5 (MASTER)
C/2020 F5 (MASTER) orbit on April 20, 2020
Discovery
Discovered byMASTER
Discovery dateMarch 28, 2020
Orbital characteristics
Epoch2020-Apr-06
2458945.5
Observation arc39 days
Perihelion4.32 AU
Eccentricity1.0007
Orbital period~36000 yrs (inbound)
~1800 yrs (outbound)
Inclination51.69°
Last perihelion2021-Mar-23
Earth MOID3.5 AU

Notes

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  1. ^ "C/2020 F5 ( MASTER )". www.aerith.net. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
  2. ^ Oberhaus, Daniel. "So You've Found a Comet With a Weird Orbit …". Wired – via www.wired.com.
  3. ^ Small-Body Database Lookup
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