Comet Data

Information on Selected Comets

                     Orbital   Perihelion   Perihelion   Semi-Major     Orbital        Orbital     Absolute
Name                 Period       Date       Distance       Axis      Eccentricity   Inclination   Magnitude
--------            -------   ----------   ----------   ----------   ------------   -----------   ---------
Halley              76.1 yrs.  1986-02-09    0.587 AU     17.94 AU        0.967       162.2 deg.      5.5
Grigg-Skjellerup     5.09 yrs. 1992-07-22    0.989 AU      2.96 AU        0.664        21.1 deg.     12.5
Giacobini-Zinner     6.52 yrs. 1998-11-09    0.996 AU      3.52 AU        0.706        31.8 deg.      9.0
Crommelin           27.89 yrs. 1984-09-01    0.743 AU      9.20 AU        0.919        29.0 deg.     12.0
Chiron              50.7 yrs.  1996-02-14    8.46 AU      13.7 AU         0.38          7 deg.
Temple-Tuttle       32.92 yrs. 1998-02-27    0.982 AU     10.33 AU        0.906       162.5 deg.      9.0
Honda-Mrkos-Pajd.    5.28 yrs. 1996-01-17    0.581 AU      3.02 AU        0.825         4.3 deg.     13.5
Encke                3.30 yrs. 1997-06-11    0.340 AU      2.21 AU        0.847        11.8 deg.      9.8
Kohoutek             6.24 yrs. 1973-12-28    1.571 AU      3.4 AU         0.537         5.4 deg.
Wirtanen             5.46 yrs. 1997-03-14    1.063 AU      3.12 AU        0.652        11.7 deg.      9.0
Wild 2               6.17 yrs. 1997-05-06    1.491 AU      3.44 AU        0.540         3.2 deg.      6.5
Hale-Bopp           4000. yrs. 1997-03-31    0.914 AU      250. AU        0.995        89.4 deg.
Hyakutake         >65000. yrs. 1996-05-01    0.230 AU    >1600. AU        0.99997     124.9 deg.

Halley - Subject of the International Halley Watch (IHW), a coordinated effort of ground-based and spacecraft observations.
Grigg-Skjellerup - Target of Giotto flyby (within 200 km) on 10 July 1992.
Giacobini-Zinner - Target of ICE flyby on 11 Sep 1985 within 7800 km. Future target of Suisei (24 Nov 1998) and Sakigake (29 Nov 1998) flybys.
Crommelin - Subject of 1984 test of the IHW network.
Chiron - Comet/asteroid, also known as asteroid 2060 Chiron. Subject of the Chiron Perihelion Campaign
Temple-Tuttle - Planned target of Suisei flyby on 28 Feb 1998.
Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova - Planned target of Sakigake flyby at 10,000 km on 3 Feb 1996.
Encke - Radar observations made by Arecibo Observatory in 1980 indicated a radius of 0.4 to 4.0 km.
Kohoutek - Observed by Skylab astronauts in Dec.,1973 and Jan.,1974.
Wirtanen - To be visited by the ESA Rosetta mission in 2011.
Wild 2 - Target of the Discovery coma sample return mission, Stardust, in Jan. 2004.
Hale-Bopp - Discovered in July, 1995. Shows signs of becoming bright comet when it reaches Earth in March, 1997.
Hyakutake - Discovered in January, 1996. Will pass within 0.1 AU of Earth on March 25, 1996

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