C/2006 P1

Also known as Great Comet of 2007, 2006 P1, McNaught, C/2006 P1 McNaught, Comet McNaught

comet

Key facts

Discovered by: Robert H. McNaught
Discovery site: Siding Spring Observatory , ( Uppsala Southern Schmidt Telescope )
Discovery date: 7 August 2006
Epoch: 26 November 2006 ( JD 2454065.5)
Observation arc: 338 days
Orbit type: Oort cloud
Aphelion: ~67,000 AU (inbound), ~4,100 AU (outbound)
Perihelion: 0.171 AU
Semi major axis: ~33,000 AU (inbound), ~2,000 AU (outbound)
Eccentricity: 1.000019 (inbound), 0.99917 (outbound)
Orbital period: ~6 million years (inbound), ~92,600 years (outbound)
Max orbital speed: 101.9 km/s (63.3 mi/s)

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Article

Comet McNaught, also known as the Great Comet of 2007 and given the designation C/2006 P1, is a non-periodic comet discovered on 7 August 2006 by British-Australian astronomer Robert H. McNaught using the Uppsala Southern Schmidt Telescope. It was the brightest comet in over 40 years, and was easily visible to the naked eye for observers in the Southern Hemisphere in January and February 2007.

With an estimated peak magnitude of −5.5, the comet was the second-brightest since 1935. Around perihelion on 12 January, it was visible worldwide in broad daylight. Its tail measured an estimated at 74.935 million km (0.501 AU) in length and stretched 35 degrees across the sky at its peak.