Historic Comets
The great and periodic comets discovered before the twentieth century.
- Borrelly19P/Borrelly
A Jupiter-family comet whose bowling-pin-shaped nucleus was imaged by NASA's Deep Space 1 in 2001.
TypeJupiter-family cometPeriod6.8 yrDiscovered1904 - Encke2P/Encke
The comet with the shortest known orbital period (about 3.3 years) and the parent of the Taurid meteor stream.
TypeJupiter-family cometPeriod3.3 yrDiscovered1786 - Giacobini–Zinner21P/Giacobini–Zinner
A Jupiter-family comet, parent of the Draconid meteor shower, and the first comet ever visited by a spacecraft — NASA's ICE probe flew through its tail in 1985.
TypeJupiter-family cometPeriod6.6 yrDiscovered1900 - Grigg–Skjellerup26P/Grigg–Skjellerup
A Jupiter-family comet visited by ESA's Giotto in 1992 during its extended mission, after Giotto's earlier encounter with Halley.
TypeJupiter-family cometPeriod5.3 yrDiscovered1902 - Swift–Tuttle109P/Swift–Tuttle
A large Halley-type comet on a 133-year orbit, the parent body of the reliable Perseid meteor shower each August.
TypeHalley-type cometPeriod133 yrDiscovered1862 - Tempel 19P/Tempel
A Jupiter-family comet struck by NASA's Deep Impact probe in 2005 and later revisited by Stardust, revealing the composition beneath a comet's crust.
TypeJupiter-family cometPeriod5.6 yrDiscovered1867 - Tempel–Tuttle55P/Tempel–Tuttle
The parent comet of the Leonid meteor shower, whose 33-year returns produce the periodic Leonid storms.
TypeHalley-type cometPeriod33 yrDiscovered1865 - ThatcherC/1861
A long-period comet on a roughly 415-year orbit, the parent body of the Lyrid meteor shower seen each April.
TypeLong-period cometPeriod415 yrDiscovered1861