13P/Olbers
13P/Olbers is a periodic comet with an orbital period of 69 years. It fits the classical definition of a Halley-type comet with a period between 20 and 200 years. The comet last passed perihelion 30 June 2024 and it was previously seen in 1956. The next perihelion is in 2094. It is the third of three comets discovered by German astronomer, Heinrich Olbers.
Key facts
- Comet.name
- 13P/Olbers
- Comet.image
- Comet 13P Olbers crop2.png
- Comet.caption
- Comet Olbers photographed by Don Heffernan on 11 August 2024
- Comet.discoverer
- Heinrich Olbers
- Comet.discovery_date
- 6 March 1815
- Comet.epoch
- 21 November 2025 (JD 2461000.5)
- Comet.observation_arc
- 210.40 years
- Comet.obs
- 2,619
- Comet.perihelion
- 1.175 AU
- Comet.aphelion
- 32.676 AU
- Comet.semimajor
- 16.926 AU
- Comet.eccentricity
- 0.93056
Article
10 sectionsContents
- Observational history
- Discovery
- 1887
- 1956
- 2024
- 2094
- Meteor showers
- Notes
- References
- External links
13P/Olbers is a periodic comet with an orbital period of 69 years. It fits the classical definition of a Halley-type comet with a period between 20 and 200 years. The comet last passed perihelion 30 June 2024 and it was previously seen in 1956. The next perihelion is in 2094. It is the third of three comets discovered by German astronomer, Heinrich Olbers.
== Observational history == === Discovery === Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers discovered the comet on 6 March 1815 and described it as small. The comet came to perihelion on 26 April 1815 and reached an apparent magnitude of about 5, and was faintly visible by naked eye. Its orbit was first computed by Carl Friedrich Gauss on March 31 as parabolic, and Friedrich Bessel calculated an orbital period of 73.9 years using observations from June. Calculations by other astronomers during that era resulted anywhere between 72 and 77 years. Modern solutions give an orbital period of 74.9 years for the 1815 epoch.