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138P/Shoemaker–Levy

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Also known as Shoemaker-Levy 7, 1991 XIX, 1998 O1

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.

Key facts

Comet.name
138P/Shoemaker–Levy
Comet.discovery_site
Palomar Observatory
Comet.discovery_date
13 November 1991
Comet.mpc_name
P/1991 V2P/1998 O1
Comet.designations
Shoemaker–Levy 71991 XIX, 1991d1
Comet.epoch
16 December 2008 (JD 2454816.5)
Comet.observation_arc
33.84 years
Comet.obs
126
Comet.perihelion
1.706 AU
Comet.aphelion
5.544 AU
Comet.semimajor
3.625 AU
Comet.eccentricity
0.52941
Comet.period
6.91 a
Comet.inclination
10.079°
Comet.asc_node
309.44°
Comet.arg_peri
95.558°
Comet.mean
177.91°
Comet.tjup
2.830

via Wikipedia infobox

~1 min read

Encyclopedic overview

2 sections
Contents
  • References
  • External links

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.

There were 4 recovery images of 138P on 8 August 2018 by Pan-STARRS when the comet had a magnitude of about 21.5. The comet came to perihelion on 2 May 2019, and the next perihelion is 24 March 2026.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “138P/Shoemaker–Levy” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.