8P/Tuttle

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**8P/Tuttle**
Discovery

Discovered by:	Horace Parnell Tuttle
Discovery date:	January 5, 1858
Alternate designations:	1790 II; 1858 I; 1871 III; 1885 IV; 1899 III; 1912 IV; 1926 IV; 1939 X; 1967 V; 1980 XIII; 1994 XV
Orbital characteristics ^A
Epoch:	January 15, 2008
Aphelion distance:	10.376340 AU
Perihelion distance:	1.027132 AU
Semi-major axis:	5.701737 AU
Eccentricity:	0.819856
Orbital period:	13.6 a
Inclination:	54.9830°
Last perihelion:	January 27, 2008
Next perihelion:	August 27, 2021 ^[1]

8P/Tuttle is a periodic comet in our solar system. Perihelion was late January 2008, and as of February was visible telescopically to Southern Hemisphere observers in the constellation Eridanus. On December 30, 2007 it was in close conjunction with spiral galaxy M33. On January 2, 2008 it passed Earth at a distance of 0.25 AU.

Comet 8P/Tuttle is responsible for the Ursid meteor shower in late December.^[2]

Predictions that the 2007 Ursid meteor shower could be expected to be stronger than usual due to the return of the comet, ^[3] did not appear to materialize, as counts were in the range of normal distribution.