46P/Wirtanen
{| 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) |- | 1967 || 1.61 |- | 1974 || 1.26 |- | 1986 || 1.08 |- | 2013 || 1.05 |- | 2035 || 1.08 |- | 2046 || 1.22 |- | 2059 || 1.98 |- | 2095 || 2.01 |}
Key facts
- Comet.name
- 46P/Wirtanen
- Comet.image
- Comet 46P Wirtanen on 12 December 2018 (cropped).png
- Comet.caption
- Wirtanen at perihelion on 12 December 2018
- Comet.discoverer
- Carl A. Wirtanen
- Comet.discovery_site
- Lick Observatory
- Comet.discovery_date
- 17 January 1948
- Comet.mpc_name
- P/1948 A1, P/1954 R2
- Comet.epoch
- 13 September 2023 (JD 2460200.5)
- Comet.observation_arc
- 75.89 years
- Comet.obs
- 7,527
- Comet.perihelion
- 1.055 AU
- Comet.aphelion
- 5.127 AU
Article
8 sectionsContents
- Discovery
- Perihelion passages
- Exploration proposals
- Associated meteor showers
- 2023
- 2012
- References
- External links
{| 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) |- | 1967 || 1.61 |- | 1974 || 1.26 |- | 1986 || 1.08 |- | 2013 || 1.05 |- | 2035 || 1.08 |- | 2046 || 1.22 |- | 2059 || 1.98 |- | 2095 || 2.01 |}
46P/Wirtanen is a small Jupiter-family comet with a current orbital period of 5.4 years. It was the original target for close investigation by the Rosetta spacecraft, planned by the European Space Agency, but an inability to meet the launch window caused Rosetta to be sent to 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko instead. In December 2019, astronomers reported capturing an outburst of the comet in substantial detail by the TESS observatory. It was last observed in 2023 and will next come to perihelion in 2029