55P/Tempel–Tuttle
Sign in to save55P/Tempel–Tuttle (commonly known as Comet Tempel–Tuttle) is a retrograde periodic comet with an orbital period of 33 years. It fits the classical definition of a Halley-type comet with a period of between 20 and 200 years. It was independently discovered by Wilhelm Tempel on 19 December 1865, and by Horace Parnell Tuttle on 6 January 1866. It is the parent body of the Leonid meteor shower.
Key facts
- Comet.name
- 55P/Tempel–Tuttle
- Comet.image
- Comet Temple-Tuttle u4jm0404r.fits.gz sci.jpg
- Comet.caption
- Comet Tempel–Tuttle photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope on 9 January 1998
- Comet.discoverer
- Wilhelm TempelHorace Parnell Tuttle
- Comet.discovery_date
- 19 December 1865
- Comet.designations
- 1699 II, 1866 I, 1965 IV
- Comet.epoch
- 25 February 2023 (JD 2460000.5)
- Comet.observation_arc
- 631.69 years
- Comet.earliest_precovery_date
- 25 October 1366
- Comet.obs
- 471
- Comet.perihelion
- 0.975 AU
- Comet.aphelion
- 19.732 AU
- Comet.semimajor
- 10.354 AU
- Comet.eccentricity
- 0.90587
- Comet.period
- 33.318 years
- Comet.inclination
- 162.48°
- Comet.asc_node
- 235.41°
- Comet.arg_peri
- 172.45°
via Wikipedia infobox
Article
8 sectionsContents
- Observational history
- Physical characteristics
- Orbit
- Meteor shower
- See also
- References
- Bibliography
- External links
55P/Tempel–Tuttle (commonly known as Comet Tempel–Tuttle) is a retrograde periodic comet with an orbital period of 33 years. It fits the classical definition of a Halley-type comet with a period of between 20 and 200 years. It was independently discovered by Wilhelm Tempel on 19 December 1865, and by Horace Parnell Tuttle on 6 January 1866. It is the parent body of the Leonid meteor shower.
== Observational history == left|thumb|Sketch of the comet as it was discovered by Wilhelm Tempel on 19 December 1865. In 1699, it was observed by Gottfried Kirch, however it was not recognized as a periodic comet until the discoveries by Tempel and Tuttle during the 1866 perihelion. In 1933, S. Kanda deduced that the comet of 1366 was Tempel–Tuttle, which was confirmed by Joachim Schubart in 1965. On 26 October 1366, the comet passed from Earth. It is possible the comet was also observed in October 1234, however it is only mentioned briefly by a single Japanese source, and also a comet observed in China in January 1035 could be comet Temple–Tuttle, however unless it had undergone a major outburst, it would have been too dim to observe with the naked eye.