8P/Tuttle
< 8P
Tuttle's Comet and the Triangulum Galaxy photographed from Mount Laguna, California on December 30, 2007 | |
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Horace Parnell Tuttle |
| Discovery date | January 5, 1858 |
| Designations | |
| P/1790 A2; P/1858 A1 P/1871 T1 | |
| 1790 II; 1858 I; 1871 III; 1885 IV; 1899 III; 1912 IV; 1926 IV; 1939 X; 1967 V; 1980 XIII; 1994 XV | |
| Orbital characteristics | |
| Epoch | January 21, 2022 (JD 2459600.5) |
| Observation arc | 14.09 years (5,150 days) |
| Number of observations | 316 |
| Aphelion | 10.39 AU |
| Perihelion | 1.026 AU |
| Semi-major axis | 5.707 AU |
| Eccentricity | 0.82023 |
| Orbital period | 13.6 years |
| Inclination | 54.911° |
| 270.20° | |
| Argument of periapsis | 207.49° |
| Mean anomaly | 10.573° |
| Last perihelion | August 27, 2021 |
| Next perihelion | April 18, 2035 |
| TJupiter | 1.601 |
| Earth MOID | 0.095 AU |
| Jupiter MOID | 0.738 AU |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | 4.5 km (2.8 mi) |
| 11.4 hours | |
| (V–R) = 0.53±0.04 | |
| Comet total magnitude (M1) | 14.6 |
8P/Tuttle (also known as Tuttle's Comet or Comet Tuttle) is a periodic comet with a 13.6-year orbit. It fits the classical definition of a Jupiter-family comet with an orbital period of less than 20 years, but does not fit the modern definition of (2 < TJupiter< 3). Its last perihelion passage was 27 August 2021 when it had a solar elongation of 26 degrees at approximately apparent magnitude 9. Two weeks later, on September 12, 2021, it was about 1.8 AU (270 million km) from Earth which is about as far from Earth as the comet can get when the comet is near perihelion.
Comet 8P/Tuttle is responsible for the Ursid meteor shower in late December.