Comets in 2026

10P/Tempel, also known as Tempel 2, is a Jupiter-family comet with a 5.36-year orbit around the Sun. It was discovered on 4 July 1873 by Wilhelm Tempel. At the perihelion passage on 2 August 2026 the solar elongation is calculated at 164 degrees, with apparent magnitude approximately 8, with closest approach to Earth on 3 August 2026 at a distance of .

14P/Wolf is a periodic comet with an 8.78-year orbit around the Sun. It is the first of three comets discovered by German astronomer, Max Wolf.

Comet Schaumasse is a Jupiter-family comet with an 8.2-year orbit around the Sun. It is the first of three comets discovered by French astronomer, Alexandre Schaumasse. It last came to perihelion on 8 January 2026 and will next come to perihelion on 16 March 2034.

88P/Howell is a periodic comet with a 5.5 year orbital period. It was discovered on 29 August 1981, by Ellen Howell. In 1975 the comet's perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) was 1.9 AU, but a close approach to Jupiter in 1978 perturbed the perihelion distance closer to the Sun. During the 2009 apparition the comet became as bright as apparent magnitude 8.

76P/West–Kohoutek–Ikemura is a Jupiter-family periodic comet in the Solar System with a current orbital period of 6.47 years.

63P/Wild is a periodic comet in the Solar System with a current orbital period of 13.21 years. It will next come to perihelion on 6 July 2026.

Comet Taylor, also known as 69P/Taylor, is a Jupiter-family comet with a 7.64-year orbit around the Sun. It is the only comet discovered by South African astronomer, Clement Jennings Taylor.

143P/Kowal–Mrkos is a periodic comet in the Solar System.

comet discovered in 2026

93P/Lovas, also called Comet Lovas 1, is a Jupiter-family comet with an orbital period of 9.2 years. It was discovered in 1980 by Hungarian astronomer Miklós Lovas.

82P/Gehrels is a periodic comet that was discovered on 27 October 1975, by Tom Gehrels at the Palomar Mountain Observatory in California having a faint nuclear brightness of magnitude 17.

Comet West–Hartley is a periodic comet with a 7.67-year orbit around the Sun.

78P/Gehrels, also known as Gehrels 2, is a Jupiter-family comet with a current orbital period of 7.22 years. It is the second periodic comet discovered by American astronomer, Tom Gehrels.

114P/Wiseman–Skiff is a Jupiter-family comet with a 6.67-year orbit around the Sun. It is the only comet discovered by Jennifer Wiseman and one of several by Brian A. Skiff.

161P/Hartley–IRAS is a periodic comet with an orbital period of 21 years. It fits the classical definition of a Halley-type comet with (20 years < period < 200 years).

163P/NEAT is a periodic comet discovered on November 5, 2004 by Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) using the 1.2 meter Samuel Oschin telescope at Palomar Observatory.

169/NEAT is a periodic comet in the Solar System. It is the parent body of the alpha Capricornids meteor shower in late July. 169/NEAT may be related to comet P/2003 T12 (SOHO).

Comet 252P/LINEAR is a Jupiter-family comet and near-Earth object discovered by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) survey on 7 April 2000.

non-periodic comet

266P/Christensen is a Encke-type comet with a 6.63-year orbit around the Sun. It will next come to perihelion in December 2026. It has been suggested as the possible source of the 1977 "Wow! Signal", however this was later disproven by a follow-up study in 2020, where it was found out to be likely a maser-like flare from small hydrogen clouds in interstellar space instead.

Comet McNaught 4, also known as 260P/McNaught, is a periodic comet with a 6.9-year orbit around the Sun. It is one of several comets discovered by Australian astronomer, Robert H. McNaught.

oort cloud comet