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).[2] Its last perihelion passage was 27 August 2021 when it had a solar elongation of 26 degrees at approximately apparent magnitude 9.[6] 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.
Discovery | |
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Discovered by | Horace Parnell Tuttle |
Discovery date | January 5, 1858 |
Alternative designations | 1790 II; 1858 I; 1871 III; 1885 IV; 1899 III; 1912 IV; 1926 IV; 1939 X; 1967 V; 1980 XIII; 1994 XV |
Orbital characteristics A | |
Epoch | January 15, 2008 |
Aphelion | 10.376340 AU |
Perihelion | 1.027132 AU |
Semi-major axis | 5.701737 AU |
Eccentricity | 0.819856 |
Orbital period | 13.6 a[1] |
Inclination | 54.9830° |
Earth MOID | 0.095 AU (14.2 million km)[2] |
Dimensions | 4.5 km contact binary[2] |
Last perihelion | August 27, 2021[3][4] January 27, 2008 |
Next perihelion | 2035-Apr-18[5] |
Comet 8P/Tuttle is responsible for the Ursid meteor shower in late December.[7]
Under dark skies, the comet was a naked-eye object. Perihelion was late January 2008 and, as of February, was visible telescopically to Southern Hemisphere observers in the constellation Eridanus. On December 30, 2007, it was in close conjunction with spiral galaxy M33. On January 1, 2008, it passed Earth at a distance of 0.25282 AU (37,821,000 km; 23,501,000 mi).[2]
Predictions that the 2007 Ursid meteor shower could have possibly been stronger than usual due to the return of the comet,[8] did not appear to materialize, as counts were in the range of normal distribution.
Radar observations of Comet Tuttle in January 2008 by the Arecibo Observatory show it to be a contact binary.[9][10] The comet nucleus is estimated at about 4.5 km in diameter, using the equivalent diameter of a sphere having a volume equal to the sum of a 3 km and 4 km sphere.[2]
2021 in space | ||
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8P/Tuttle | Next 9P/Tempel |