26P/Grigg-Skjellerup

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Comet Grigg-Skjellerup (formally designated 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup) is a periodic comet.

Discovered in 1902 by John Grigg of New Zealand, and rediscovered in its next appearance in 1922 by John Francis Skjellerup, an Australian then living and working for about two decades in South Africa where he was a founder member of the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa.

In 1987, it was belatedly discovered by Lubor Kresak that the comet had been observed in 1808 as well, by Jean-Louis Pons.

The comet has often suffered the gravitational influence of Jupiter, which has altered its orbit considerably. For instance, its perihelion distance has changed from 0.77 AU in 1725 to 0.89 AU in 1922 to 0.99 AU in 1977 and to 1.12 AU in 1999.

Having its recent perihelion so close to Earth's orbit made it an easy target to reach for the Giotto mission (spacecraft) in 1992, whose primary mission was to Comet Halley. Giotto had a closest approach to Grigg-Skjellerup of 200 km, much closer than its approach to Comet Halley, but did not get any pictures as its camera was destroyed during the Halley renzdevous in 1986.

In 1972 the comet was discovered to able to produce a meteor shower, the Pi Puppids, and its current orbit makes them peak around April 23, for observers in the southern hemisphere, best seen when the comet is near perihelion.