Comet 9P/Tempel

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Photographer:

Mike Olason

Location of Photo:

Tucson, Arizona

Date/Time of photo:

19 December 2020, 0637UT

Equipment:

11" SCT and STF-8300M CCD Camera

Description:

Comet 9P/Tempel was discovered in 1867 by Wilhelm Tempel. Comet 9P was hit by a projectile fired at it by the Deep Impact space mission in July 2005. In Feb 2011 the Stardust Spacecraft photographed the 490 foot wide crater left by the impact. The comets nucleus is 4.7 x 3.0 miles wide. Comet 9P will reach perihelion in its 5.58 year orbit in March 2022 when it may brighten to magnitude 12. In these images 9P was very faint at magnitude 19.6 and 256 million miles from Earth.