Comet C/2015 F3 (SWAN) was discovered in March 2015 by Rob Matson, Vladimir Bezugly and Michael Matiazzo in near real time images taken by the SWAN instrument aboard the SOHO spacecraft. At discovery the comet was already shining at around 10th magnitude as it was already near perihelion. Orbital studies revealed C/2015 F3 to be a related fragment to long periodic comets C/1988 A1 (Liller) and C/1996 Q1 (Tabur), which were already thought to have broken off each other at a previous perihelion passage. As of May 2015, Comet SWAN was fading rapidly, as both C/1988 A1 and C/1996 Q1 ultimately did. .