| 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: | 10.376340 AU |
| Perihelion: | 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 (also known as Tuttle's Comet or Comet 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.
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Radar observations of Comet Tuttle in January 2008 by the Arecibo Observatory show it to be a contact binary.[4][5] The comet nucleus is estimated at about 4.5 km in diameter, using the equivalent diameter of a sphere having a volume equal to the sum of a 3km and 4km sphere.[6]
| Periodic comets (by number) | ||
|---|---|---|
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8P/Tuttle | Next 9P/Tempel |