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55P/Tempel–Tuttle
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55P/Tempel–Tuttle

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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.

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

Wikidata facts

Diameter
3.6
Orbital period
12141.56115249823
Image
Drawing of comet 55P by Tempel-from his personal notebooks in the Arcetri.jpg
Show 14 more facts
provisional designation
1965i
Commons category
55P/Tempel–Tuttle
time of discovery or invention
1865-12-19
absolute magnitude
10.0
albedo
0.06
orbital eccentricity
0.905552720972412
semi-major axis of an orbit
10.3383382297577
periapsis
0.976427915467506
apoapsis
19.70024854404794
orbital inclination
162.486575379434
longitude of ascending node
235.270989149082
argument of periapsis
172.5002736828059
mean anomaly
4.97833968468816
time of periapsis
2450872.5977341123
Sources (3)

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~5 min read

Article

8 sections
Contents
  • 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.

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