Comet Orbit

Comet and Asteroid Orbit Diagrams. The orbit of any comet or asteroid can be viewed. Start with our small-body browser to find the asteroid of interest, then select the Orbit Diagram link. For example, here is the orbit diagram for asteroid 1 Ceres. Comet Halley moves backward (opposite to Earth's motion) around the Sun in a plane tilted 18 degrees to that of the Earth's orbit. Halley's backward, or retrograde, motion is unusual among short-period comets, as is its greatest distance from the Sun (aphelion) is beyond the orbit of Neptune. Halley's orbit period is, on average, 76 Earth years.

1. Do Comets Orbit The Sun
2. Comet Orbiting The Sun
3. Comet Orbit Diagram
4. All About Comets

Information on Selected Comets

The image shown is a view of the nucleus of Comet Halley taken by the Giotto spacecraft.
Below is a table of information on selected comets, and at the bottom of the page are
comments on the comets.

Orbital	Perihelion	Perihelion	Semi-Major	Orbital	Orbital	Absolute
Number and Name		Period	Date	Distance	Axis	Eccentricity	Inclination	Magnitude
---------------------------		---------	----------	----------	----------	------------	-----------	---------
1P	Halley	76.1 yrs.	1986-02-09	0.587 AU	17.94 AU	0.967	162.2 deg.	5.5
2P	Encke	3.30 yrs.	2003-12-28	0.340 AU	2.21 AU	0.847	11.8 deg.	9.8
6P	d'Arrest	6.51 yrs.	2008-08-01	1.346 AU	3.49 AU	0.614	19.5 deg.	8.5
9P	Tempel 1	5.51 yrs.	2005-07-05	1.500 AU	3.12 AU	0.519	10.5 deg.	12.0
19P	Borrelly	6.86 yrs.	2001-09-14	1.358 AU	3.61 AU	0.624	30.3 deg.	11.9
21P	Giacobini-Zinner	6.52 yrs.	1998-11-21	0.996 AU	3.52 AU	0.706	31.8 deg.	9.0
26P	Grigg-Skjellerup	5.09 yrs.	1992-07-22	0.989 AU	2.96 AU	0.664	21.1 deg.	12.5
27P	Crommelin	27.89 yrs.	1984-09-01	0.743 AU	9.20 AU	0.919	29.0 deg.	12.0
45P	Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova	5.29 yrs.	1995-12-25	0.528 AU	3.02 AU	0.825	4.3 deg.	13.5
46P	Wirtanen	5.46 yrs.	2013-10-21	1.063 AU	3.12 AU	0.652	11.7 deg.	9.0
55P	Tempel-Tuttle	32.92 yrs.	1998-02-28	0.982 AU	10.33 AU	0.906	162.5 deg.	9.0
67P	Churyumov-Gerasimenko	6.57 yrs.	2002-08-18	1.292 AU	3.51 AU	0.632	7.1 deg.
73P	Schwassmann-Wachmann 3	5.36 yrs.	2006-06-02	0.937 AU	3.06 AU	0.694	11.4 deg.	11.7
75P	Kohoutek	6.24 yrs.	1973-12-28	1.571 AU	3.4 AU	0.537	5.4 deg.	12.1
76P	West-Kohoutek-Ikemura	6.46 yrs.	2000-06-01	1.596 AU	3.45 AU	0.540	30.5 deg.	10.6
81P	Wild 2	6.39 yrs.	2003-09-25	1.583 AU	3.44 AU	0.540	3.2 deg.	6.5
95P	Chiron	50.7 yrs.	1996-02-14	8.46 AU	13.7 AU	0.383	7 deg.
107P	Wilson-Harrington	4.29 yrs.	2001-03-26	1.000 AU	2.64 AU	0.623	2.8 deg.	9.0
Hale-Bopp	4000. yrs.	1997-03-31	0.914 AU	250. AU	0.995	89.4 deg.	-1.0
Hyakutake	~40000. yrs.	1996-05-01	0.230 AU	~1165. AU	0.9998	124.9 deg.

Halley - Subject of the International Halley Watch (IHW), a coordinated effort of ground-based and spacecraft observations.
Encke - Planned encounter by CONTOUR mission on 12 November 2003. Radar observations made by Arecibo Observatory in 1980 indicated a radius of 0.4 to 4.0 km.
d'Arrest - Planned encounter by CONTOUR mission on 16 August 2008.
Tempel 1 - Planned flyby and projectile impact by the Deep Impact mission on 4 July 2005.
Borrelly - Target of Deep Space 1 spacecraft in 2001.
Giacobini-Zinner - Target of ICE flyby on 11 Sep 1985 within 7800 km.
Grigg-Skjellerup - Target of Giotto flyby (within 200 km) on 10 July 1992.
Crommelin - Subject of 1984 test of the IHWnetwork.

Do Comets Orbit The Sun

Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova - Originally planned target of Sakigake flyby at 10,000 km on 3 Feb 1996.
Wirtanen - Originally scheduled to be visited by the ESA Rosetta mission in 2011. Mission rerouted.
Temple-Tuttle - Originally planned target of Suisei flyby on 28 Feb 1998.
Churyumov-Gerasimenko - Studied from orbit by Rosetta mission.

Comet Orbiting The Sun

Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 - Planned encounter by CONTOUR mission on 18 June 2006. Split into three large pieces in 1995.
Kohoutek - Observed by Skylab astronauts in Dec 1973 and Jan 1974.
West-Kohoutek-Ikemura - Original target of New Millenium Deep Space 1 spacecraft in 2000.
Wild 2 - Target of the Discovery coma sample return mission, Stardust, in Jan 2004.
Wilson-Harrington - At one time a possible target of Deep Space 1 spacecraft in 2001.
Chiron - Comet/asteroid, also known as asteroid 2060 Chiron. Subject of the Chiron Perihelion Campaign
Hale-Bopp - Discovered in July 1995. Bright comet, made closest approach to Earth on 22 March 1997.
Hyakutake - Discovered in January 1996. Bright comet, passed within 0.1 AU of Earth on 25 March 1996.
Notes on the Fact Sheets
Comet Home Page
Directory to other Planetary Fact Sheets
Author/Curator:

Comet Orbit Diagram

Dr. David R. Williams, [email protected]
NSSDCA, Mail Code 690.1
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, MD 20771
+1-301-286-1258

All About Comets

NASA Official: Ed Grayzeck, [email protected]
Last Updated: 04 January 2016, DRW