C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS) Comet

C/2025 R3 (PANSTARRS) is a long-period comet originating from the Oort Cloud, discovered on 8 September 2025 by the Pan-STARRS survey using a telescope at Haleakalā, Hawaii. It passed perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on 19 April 2026, at a distance of 0.499 AU (about 74.6 million km), reaching an apparent magnitude of approximately +3, briefly making it visible to the naked eye under dark skies.

The comet has a hyperbolic orbit with an eccentricity of ~1.00036, indicating it is likely on an ejection trajectory and may be permanently ejected from the Solar System after this passage. Its orbital period is estimated at around 170,000 years if it returns at all.