Numbered comets

354P/LINEAR, provisionally designated P/2010 A2 (LINEAR), is a small main-belt asteroid that was impacted by another asteroid sometime before 2010. It was discovered by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) at Socorro, New Mexico on 6 January 2010. The asteroid possesses a dusty, X-shaped, comet-like debris trail that has remained nearly a decade since impact. This was the first time a small-body collision had been observed; since then, minor planet 596 Scheila has also been seen to undergo a collision, in late 2010. The tail is created by millimeter-sized particles being pushed ba

209P/LINEAR is a periodic comet with an orbital period of 5.1 years. The comet has extremely low activity for its size and is probably in the process of evolving into an extinct comet.

47P/Ashbrook–Jackson is a Jupiter-family comet with an 8.35-year orbit around the Sun. It is the only comet discovered by Joseph Ashbrook and the third and final one by Cyril V. Jackson.

37P/Forbes is a periodic comet in the Solar System. The orbit of this comet passes close to the planet Jupiter however it orbit changes frequently. It was discovered on August 1, 1929, by Alexander F. I. Forbes in South Africa. The comet nucleus is estimated to be in diameter.

comet

{| class=wikitable style="text-align:center; font-size:11px; float:right; margin:2px" |- bgcolor= style="font-size: smaller;" | colspan="8" style="text-align:center;"|Perihelion distanceat different epochs |- ! Epoch !! Perihelion(AU) |- | 1903 || 1.38 |- | 1916 || 1.53 |- | 1964 || 1.66 |- | 2000 || 2.16 |- | 2041 || 2.25 |}

Comet 96P/Machholz, also known as Machholz 1 is a periodic sunskirting comet discovered on 12 May 1986, by amateur astronomer Donald Machholz on Loma Prieta peak, in central California using binoculars. On 6 June 1986, 96P/Machholz passed from the Earth. 96P/Machholz last came to perihelion on January 31, 2023. The comet has an estimated diameter of around .

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.

111P/Helin–Roman–Crockett is an Encke-type comet with an 8.46-year orbit around the Sun. It was co-discovered by Eleanor and Ron Helin, Brian P. Roman and Randy L. Crockett on 5 January 1989 from images obtained about 1-2 days prior.

36P/Whipple is a periodic comet in the Solar System. It is the lowest numbered Quasi-Hilda comet. It passed from Jupiter in June 1922.

147P/Kushida–Muramatsu is a quasi-Hilda comet discovered in 1993 by Japanese astronomers Yoshio Kushida and Osamu Muramatsu.

206P/Barnard–Boattini was the first comet to be discovered by photographic means. First observed by Edward Emerson Barnard in 1892, it was subsequently lost for 116 years until it was rediscovered by Andrea Boattini in 2008.

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.

48P/Johnson is a periodic comet in the Solar System.

87P/Bus is an Encke-type comet with a current orbital period of 6.37 years around the Sun. It is the only comet discovered by Australian astronomer, Schelte J. Bus.

40P/Väisälä is a periodic comet that was discovered on February 8, 1939. Its orbit was determined on April 26, 1939. In 1994, the diameter of its nucleus was found to be , similar in size to that of Comet Encke. It came to perihelion on November 12, 2025.

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

solar system comet

Comet Hartley 1, also known as 100P/Hartley, is a Jupiter family comet with a 6.35-year orbit around the Sun. It is one of 12 comets discovered by Australian astronomer, Malcolm Hartley.

138P/Shoemaker–Levy, also known as Shoemaker–Levy 7, is a faint Jupiter-family comet with a 7-year orbit around the Sun. During its 2012 perihelion, the comet brightened to about apparent magnitude 20.5.

70P/Kojima is a periodic comet in the Solar System with a current orbital period of 7.05 years.

Comet Spitaler is a Jupiter-family comet with a 7.1-year orbit around the Sun. It is the only comet discovered by Austrian astronomer, Rudolf Ferdinand Spitaler.

130P/McNaught–Hughes is a Jupiter-family comet with a 6.22-year orbit around the Sun. It is the second of two comets co-discovered by Robert H. McNaught and Shaun M. Hughes.

210P/Christensen is a Jupiter family comet with an orbital period of 5.7 years. It was discovered by Eric J. Christensen on 26 May 2003 in images taken by the Catalina Sky Survey and recovered in images obtained by STEREO, the first time a single-apparition comet was recovered by a spacecraft.

80P/Peters–Hartley is a Jupiter-family comet with an orbital period of 8.06 years around the Sun. It is the first of two comets discovered by German–American astronomer, Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters, later becoming lost and subsequently recovered by Australian astronomer, Malcolm Hartley.

322P/SOHO is the first periodic comet to be discovered using the automated telescopes of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft, and second to be given a numbered designation, after 321P/SOHO. At perihelion, it is six times closer to the Sun than the planet Mercury.

160P/LINEAR is a periodic comet in the Solar System. The comet came to perihelion on 18 September 2012, and reached about apparent magnitude 17.

205P/Giacobini is a Jupiter-family comet with an orbital period of 6.68 years. It was discovered by Michel Giacobini on 4 September 1896 and then it was lost until it was recovered by Koichi Itagaki on 10 September 2008. The comet was then found to have fragmented into three pieces.

108P/Ciffréo is a Jupiter-family comet with an orbital period of 7.25 years around the Sun. It is the only comet discovered by French astronomer, Jacqueline Ciffréo. The comet is noted for having a peculiar double morphology, in which the nucleus is accompanied by a comoving, detached, diffuse tail, which is probably a perspective artifact of particles ejected sunwards and then repelled by solar wind.

121P/Shoemaker–Holt, also known as Shoemaker-Holt 2, is a periodic comet in the Solar System with an orbital period of about 8 years. The comet was discovered by Carolyn S. Shoemaker, Eugene M. Shoemaker, and Henry E. Holt on 9 March 1989. The comet then had an apparent magnitude of 13, was diffuse and had a tail about 2 arcminutes long. It was recovered by James V. Scotti on 29 August 1995 in images obtained as part of the Spacewatch survey.

101P/Chernykh is a periodic comet which was first discovered on 19 August 1977, by Nikolaj Stepanovich Chernykh. This comet is orbiting the Sun at a distance of 5.8 AU with an eccentricity of 0.60 and an orbital period of 14 years. The elliptical orbit will bring it as close as 2.35 AU and as far as 9.28 AU from the Sun. It will next come to perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) in 2034. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 5.05° to the plane of the ecliptic.

60P/Tsuchinshan, also known as Tsuchinshan 2, is a Jupiter-family comet with an orbital period of around 6.63 years. Tsuchinshan is the Wade-Giles transliteration corresponding to the pinyin Zǐjīn Shān 紫金山, which is Mandarin Chinese for "Purple Mountain".

165P/LINEAR is a periodic comet in the Solar System. 165P/LINEAR has a perihelion distance of 6.8 AU, and is a Chiron-type comet with TJupiter smaller than 3 and a semi-major axis larger than Jupiter's.

52P/Harrington–Abell is a periodic comet in the Solar System.

168P/Hergenrother is a periodic comet in the Solar System. The comet, originally named P/1998 W2, returned in 2005 and got the temporary name P/2005 N2. It was last observed in January 2020 and may have continued fragmenting after the 2012 outburst.

128P/Shoemaker–Holt, also known as Shoemaker-Holt 1, is a periodic comet in the Solar System. The comet passed close to Jupiter in 1982 and was discovered in 1987. The comet was last observed in March 2018.

125P/Spacewatch is a Jupiter-family comet with a 5.53-year orbit around the Sun. It was discovered on 8 September 1991 by Tom Gehrels using the 0.91 m Spacewatch telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory. It was the first comet discovered with the use of a CCD, and also the faintest comet upon discovery up to that point. Its nucleus has a diameter of .

273P/Pons–Gambart, also called Comet Pons-Gambart, is a periodic comet in a retrograde orbit first discovered on 21 June 1827 by Jean-Louis Pons and Jean-Félix Adolphe Gambart. It has a 186-year orbit and it fits the classical definition of a Halley-type comet (20 years < period < 200 years). Its last perihelion was in December 2012 and will next come to perihelion around August 2191.

Comet 177P/Barnard, also known as Barnard 2, is a periodic comet with an orbital period of 122 years. It fits the classical definition of a Halley-type comet with (20 years < period < 200 years). It orbits near the ecliptic plane and has aphelion near the Kuiper cliff at .

{| class=wikitable style="text-align:center; font-size:11px; float:right; margin:2px" |- bgcolor= style="font-size: smaller;" | colspan="8" style="text-align:center;"|Perihelion distanceat different epochs |- ! Epoch !! Perihelion(AU) |- | 1800 || 2.45 |- | 1859 || 2.11 |- | 1882 || 2.04 |- | 1905 || 1.96 |- | 1965 || 1.49 |- | 2011 || 1.38 |- | 2023 || 1.26 |- | 2036 || 1.36 |- | 2094 || 1.21 |- | 2106 || 1.15 |}

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.

{| class=wikitable style="text-align:center" |+ The Outward Migration of 43P !Year (epoch)!!2017!!2020!!2025 |- |Semi-major axis || 3.35 || 4.30 || 4.33 |- |Perihelion || 1.35 || 2.39 || 2.44 |- |Aphelion || 5.34 || 6.20 || 6.22 |}

129P/Shoemaker–Levy, also known as Shoemaker–Levy 3, is a periodic comet in the Solar System. It fits the definition of an Encke-type comet with (TJupiter > 3; a Jupiter), and is a quasi-Hilda comet.

68P/Klemola or '''Klemola's Comet''' is a periodic comet, which belongs to Jupiter's comet family, that was discovered in 1965 by American astronomer in Argentinian Yale-Columbia Southern Station. Its orbital period is 10.82 years.

116P/Wild, also known as Wild 4, is a periodic comet in the Solar System. It fits the definition of an Encke-type comet with (TJupiter > 3; a Jupiter).

51P/Harrington is a periodic comet in the Solar System.

58P/Jackson–Neujmin is a periodic comet in the Solar System with a current orbital period of 8.19 years.

117P/Helin–Roman–Alu, also known as Helin-Roman-Alu 1, is a periodic comet in the Solar System. It is a Quasi-Hilda comet.

157P/Tritton is a periodic comet with a 6-year orbital period. Fragment B was first observed on 21 August 2022.

Comet Urata-Niijima is a periodic comet in the Solar System discovered by Japanese astronomers Tsuneo Niijima and Takeshi Urata on October 30, 1986, at Ojima. The first orbit was calculated by Brian G. Marsden on November 5 giving an orbital period of 6.42 years.

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

56P/Slaughter–Burnham is a periodic comet in the Solar System with a period of 11.54 years. It is the second of two comets co-discovered by Robert Burnham Jr. and Charles D. Slaughter.

Comet Arend or 50P/Arend is a periodic comet in the Solar System which was discovered on October 4, 1951. It was discovered by astronomer Sylvain Julien Victor Arend at the Royal Observatory of Belgium located in the municipality of Uccle. The comet was illustrated at approximately a magnitude of 14 and also exhibited a nucleus within a coma 14 arc seconds across. It has been observed on its every subsequent apparition since discovery, with the most recent one occurred in 2024. The comet's next perihelion will be in the year 2032.

126P/IRAS is a Jupiter-family comet with an orbital period of 13.4 years. It was discovered in images taken by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) on 28 July 1983 by J. Davies. The discovery was confirmed with images taken with the 1.2-m Schmidt telescope at Palomar Observatory.

84P/Giclas is a Jupiter-family comet with a 6.69-year orbit around the Sun. It is the only comet discovered by American astronomer, Henry L. Giclas.

83D/Russell (previously 83P/Russell) is a periodic lost comet in the Solar System with an orbital period of about 7.5 years. On the post-1988 orbit the comet probably does not get brighter than about apparent magnitude 21. The comet might come to perihelion in late May 2021, but the uncertainty in the comet's position is a few million km.

72P/Denning–Fujikawa is a periodic comet discovered on 4 October 1881 by William Frederick Denning. The comet was not seen at another apparition until recovered by Shigehisa Fujikawa in 1978. From 29 December 1978 until 17 June 2014, the comet was lost. On 17 June 2014 the comet was recovered by Hidetaka Sato at apparent magnitude 16 when it was 50 degrees from the Sun. The comet came to perihelion in June 2023, and will next come to perihelion in May 2032.

172P/Yeung is a Jupiter-family comet with a 6.59-year orbit around the Sun. It is the first of two comets discovered by Hong Kong/Canadian astronomer, William Kwong Yu Yeung.

98P/Takamizawa is a periodic comet in the Solar System.

comet