Key facts
- Discovered by
- Wilhelm Tempel
- Discovery date
- 3 April 1867
- Mpc designation
- P/1867 G1, P/1873 G1 P/1967 L1, P/1972 A1
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ t ɛ m p əl /
- Alternative designations
- Tempel 1 1867 II, 1873 I, 1879 III 1966 VII, 1972 V, 1978 II 1983 XI, 1989 I, 1994 XIX 1873a, 1879b, 1972a 1977i, 1982j, 1989 I 1987e1, 1993c
- Epoch
- 25 February 2023 ( JD 2460000.5)
- Aphelion
- 4.757 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.545 AU, (1.77 AU after 2024 Jupiter approach)
- Semi major axis
- 3.151 AU
- Orbital period
- 5.59 years
- Inclination
- 10.474°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 68.64°
- Argument of periapsis
- 179.54°
- Last perihelion
- 4 March 2022
- Next perihelion
- 12 February 2028
- Earth moid
- 0.52 AU
- Dimensions
- 7.6 km × 4.9 km (4.7 mi × 3.0 mi)
- Mass
- 7.2 × 10 to 7.9 × 10 kg
via Wikipedia infobox
~8 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Tempel 1 (official designation: 9P/Tempel) is a Jupiter-family comet discovered by Wilhelm Tempel in 1867. It completes an orbit of the Sun every 5.6 years. Tempel 1 was the target of the Deep Impact space mission, which photographed a deliberate high-speed impact upon the comet in 2005. It was re-visited by the Stardust spacecraft on 14 February 2011, and came back to perihelion in August 2016. On 26 May 2024, it made a modest approach to Jupiter at a distance of 0.55 AU (82 million km), which lifted the perihelion distance. 9P will next come to perihelion on 12 February 2028 when it will be 1.77 AU (265 million km) from the Sun.
Discovery and orbital history
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Tempel 1” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.