12P/Pons–Brooks
Periodic comet with 71-year orbit / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
12P/Pons–Brooks is a periodic comet with an orbital period of 71 years.[9] Comets with an orbital period of 20–200 years are referred to as Halley-type comets. It is one of the brightest known periodic comets, reaching an absolute visual magnitude of about 5 in its approach to perihelion.[2] Comet Pons-Brooks was conclusively discovered at Marseilles Observatory in July 1812 by Jean-Louis Pons, and on its next appearance in 1883 by William Robert Brooks.[10] There are ancient records of comets that are suspected of having been apparitions of 12P/Pons–Brooks.
Discovery | |
---|---|
Discovered by | Jean-Louis Pons William Robert Brooks |
Discovery date | 12 July 1812 |
Designations | |
1812; 1884 I; 1954 VII;[1] C/1457 A1 ; C/1385 U1 [2][3] | |
Orbital characteristics | |
Epoch | 2024-05-10[4] |
Aphelion | 33.616 AU |
Perihelion | 0.78078 AU |
Semi-major axis | 17.199 AU |
Eccentricity | 0.95460 |
Orbital period | 71.32 jyr 69y 10m 30d (perihelion to perihelion) |
Inclination | 74.191° |
255.86° | |
Argument of periapsis | 198.99° |
Last perihelion | 22 May 1954[5][4] 25 January 1884 15 September 1812 |
Next perihelion | 21 April 2024[6][lower-alpha 1] |
Earth MOID | 0.176 AU (26.3 million km) |
Physical characteristics | |
Dimensions | 34±12 km[7] |
57±1 hr[8] | |
Comet total magnitude (M1) | 5[1] |
The last perihelion passage was 21 April 2024,[6][lower-alpha 1] with closest approach to Earth being 1.55 AU (232 million km) on 2 June 2024.[11] The comet is expected to brighten to about apparent magnitude 4.5.[5] The comet nucleus is estimated to be around 30 km in diameter, assuming it was not producing too much dust and gas during the 2020 photometric measurements.[7]
12P/Pons–Brooks is hypothesized to be the parent body of the weak December κ Draconids meteor shower that is active from about 29 November to 13 December.[12]