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Loading contentThe icy wanderers of the Solar System — from the short-period comets shepherded by Jupiter to the great comets that fall in from the Oort cloud — connected through the Knowledge Graph to their source reservoirs, the missions that explored them, and the meteor showers they leave behind.
Every comet and transition object modelled in the encyclopedia.
21 entriesComets that return on measured orbits, from Encke's 3.3 years to Halley's 76.
13 entriesComets on orbits longer than ~200 years, arriving from the Oort cloud.
6 entriesThe rare, brilliant comets that become naked-eye spectacles — Hale–Bopp, NEOWISE, McNaught, and more.
5 entriesShort-period comets shepherded by Jupiter, originating in the scattered disc.
10 entriesPeriodic comets with intermediate orbits of decades to two centuries.
3 entriesComets that skim the Sun at perihelion, most of them members of the Kreutz family.
2 entriesBodies on asteroid-belt orbits that display recurring comet-like activity.
1 entriesComets whose source is the distant, spherical Oort cloud.
9 entriesJupiter-family comets sourced from the scattered disc beyond Neptune (reusing Program Y's population).
9 entriesThe comets and asteroids whose debris streams produce the annual meteor showers.
8 entriesComets and transition objects that have been visited by a spacecraft.
7 entriesComets from which spacecraft have returned material to Earth.
1 entriesComets relevant to impact studies — the Jupiter impactor Shoemaker–Levy 9 and the Mars close-approacher Siding Spring.
3 entriesThe great and periodic comets discovered before the twentieth century.
8 entriesObjects that blur the line between asteroid and comet — active asteroids and dormant comets.
4 entriesAsteroids that show comet-like activity, such as the Geminids parent Phaethon.
2 entriesExtinct or dormant cometary nuclei on comet-like orbits.
2 entriesWhere comets come from — the two Oort-cloud regions modelled here, plus Program Y's trans-Neptunian populations, reused.
| Name | Designation | Type | Period | Discovered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Encke | 2P/Encke | Jupiter-family comet | 3.3 yr | 1786 |
| Grigg–Skjellerup | 26P/Grigg–Skjellerup | Jupiter-family comet | 5.3 yr | 1902 |
| Schwassmann–Wachmann 3 | 73P/Schwassmann–Wachmann 3 | Jupiter-family comet | 5.4 yr | 1930 |
| Tempel 1 | 9P/Tempel 1 | Jupiter-family comet | 5.6 yr | 1867 |
| Wild 2 | 81P/Wild 2 | Jupiter-family comet | 6.4 yr | 1978 |
| 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko | 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko | Jupiter-family comet | 6.45 yr | 1969 |
| Hartley 2 | 103P/Hartley 2 | Jupiter-family comet | 6.5 yr | 1986 |
| Giacobini–Zinner | 21P/Giacobini–Zinner | Jupiter-family comet | 6.6 yr | 1900 |
| Borrelly | 19P/Borrelly | Jupiter-family comet | 6.8 yr | 1904 |
| Tempel–Tuttle | 55P/Tempel–Tuttle | Halley-type comet | 33 yr | 1865 |
| Halley's Comet | 1P/Halley | Halley-type comet | 76 yr | — |
| Swift–Tuttle | 109P/Swift–Tuttle | Halley-type comet | 133 yr | 1862 |
| Thatcher | C/1861 G1 (Thatcher) | Long-period comet | 415 yr | 1861 |
This encyclopedia describes comets and their orbits; it computes no live visibility and states no current brightness. For what is genuinely observable, see the computed comets, meteor showers, and observing calendar in the Live Sky.
Each comet, class, family, reservoir, and transition object is a first-class knowledge-graph entity resolved through the Scientific Data Engine. Designations and orbits come from the IAU Minor Planet Center and the NASA/JPL Small-Body Database. The ten comets already modelled, the meteor showers, the missions, and Program Y's trans-Neptunian reservoirs are reused — never duplicated. Unknown values are left blank. See source quality.