88P/Howell
Sign in to save88P/Howell is a periodic comet with a 5.5 year orbital period. It was discovered on 29 August 1981, by Ellen Howell. In 1975 the comet's perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) was 1.9 AU, but a close approach to Jupiter in 1978 perturbed the perihelion distance closer to the Sun. During the 2009 apparition the comet became as bright as apparent magnitude 8.
Key facts
- Comet.name
- 88P/Howell
- Comet.image
- 88P 2020-06-09 NEOWISE image 3-color.png
- Comet.discoverer
- Ellen Howell
- Comet.discovery_date
- August 29, 1981
- Comet.designations
- 1981 X; 1987 VI; 1993 II
- Comet.epoch
- March 6, 2006
- Comet.semimajor
- 3.116 AU
- Comet.perihelion
- 1.366 AU
- Comet.aphelion
- 4.865 AU
- Comet.eccentricity
- 0.5615
- Comet.period
- 5.5 yr
- Comet.inclination
- 4.3831°
- Comet.last_p
- 2026-03-182020-Sep-26
- Comet.next_p
- 2031-Sep-08
- Comet.dimensions
- 4.4 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- Jupiter-family comet
- Parent body
- Sun
- Diameter
- 4.4
- Orbital period
- 2001.986381881391
- Image
- 88P 2020-06-09 NEOWISE image 3-color.png
Show 14 more facts
- time of discovery or invention
- 1981-08-29
- discoverer or inventor
- Ellen Suzanne Howell
- provisional designation
- 1981 X
- absolute magnitude
- 12.1
- epoch
- March 27, 2016
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.5630944119416461
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 3.108673621745861
- periapsis
- 1.358196876790368
- apoapsis
- 4.859150366701353
- orbital inclination
- 4.383100837822769
- longitude of ascending node
- 56.6975970720305
- argument of periapsis
- 235.8937321200179
- mean anomaly
- 63.9766874023456
- time of periapsis
- 2457118.720952952
via Wikidata · CC0
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Encyclopedic overview
2 sectionsContents
- References
- External links
88P/Howell is a periodic comet with a 5.5 year orbital period. It was discovered on 29 August 1981, by Ellen Howell. In 1975 the comet's perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) was 1.9 AU, but a close approach to Jupiter in 1978 perturbed the perihelion distance closer to the Sun. During the 2009 apparition the comet became as bright as apparent magnitude 8.
It came to perihelion on 6 April 2015 and 26 September 2020 and will next come to perihelion on 18 March 2026. On 14 September 2031 the comet will pass from Mars. Between 2000–2050 the closest the comet will come to Earth is in June 2042.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “88P/Howell” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.