19P/Borrelly

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**19P/Borrelly**
Comet (List of comets)

Discovery
Discoverer	Alphonse Louis Nicolas Borrelly
Discovery date	December 28, 1904
Alternate designations	1905 II; 1911 VIII; 1918 IV; 1925 VIII; 1932 IV; 1953 IV; 1960 V; 1967 VIII; 1974 VII; 1981 IV; 1987 XXXIII; 1994 XXX
Orbital elements ^A
Epoch
Eccentricity (e)	0.624
Semi-major axis (a)	3.59 AU
Perihelion (q)	1.35 AU
Aphelion (Q)	5.83 AU
Orbital period (P)	6.8 a
Inclination (i)	30.3°
Last perihelion date
Next est. perihelion date

Comet Borrelly (formally designated 19P/Borrelly) is a periodic comet, which was visited by the space craft Deep Space 1.

1 Discovery
2 Nucleus parameters
3 Deep Space 1 flyby
4 External links

[edit] Discovery

The comet was discovered by Alphonse Louis Nicolas Borrelly during a routine search for comets at Marseilles, France on December 28, 1904.

[edit] Nucleus parameters

Diameter: 8×4 km

[edit] Deep Space 1 flyby

On September 21, 2001 the spacecraft Deep Space 1, which was launched to test new equipment in space, performed a fly-by of Borrelly. It was steered toward the comet during the extended mission of the craft, and presented an unexpected bonus for the mission scientists. Despite the failure of a system that helped determine its orientation, Deep Space 1 managed to send back to Earth what were, at the time, the best images and other science data from a comet.