Comet 46P/Wirtanen (Randal Healey)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Taurus (Tau) · Contains: Solar system body or event

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Comet 46P/Wirtanen

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Comet 46P/Wirtanen

I have had maybe one clear night through all of December and it was the night of the 16th, the night of the closest apogee of Comet 46P, so I though I would give it a go.

Comet 46P/Wirtanen is a short-period comet with an orbital period of 5.4 years. The comet is relatively small in size with an estimated diameter of just 1.2 kilometers. The object was the original target for ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft but the launch window was missed so 67P/Churymov-Gerasimenko was Rosetta’s target in the end.

Comet 46P/Wirtanen was discovered by Carl A. Wirtanen in 1948 at the Lick Observatory, California via photographic plate. The plate was exposed on 17 January 1948 during a stellar proper motion survey at the observatory. It took over a year before the object was recognised as a short-period comet due to a lack of observations.

46P belongs to a small family of comets that boast a higher level of activity than expected for their nucleus size. They emit more water vapor than they should. This is one of the reasons for added interest in this regular visitor to the proximity of Earth’s orbit .

Cloudy Nights

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Comet 46P/Wirtanen

Comet 46P/Wirtanen

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Comet 46P/Wirtanen

Comet 46P/Wirtanen

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