Celebrate the New Year with Comet 8P/Tuttle

William Atkins
Sunday, 30 December 2007 18:31

Science - Space

On January 1 and 2, 2008,  Comet 8P/Tuttle will be making its closest approach to Earth. See it in your local northern sky as it travels less than 24 million miles away. And, southern sky watchers get to see it later in January.

Two days before this event, on December 30 and 31, astronomers will be looking at Comet 8P/Tuttle as it crosses the spiral galaxy M33.

However, for you backyard astronomers the New Year event can be easily seen with an average telescope as the emerald-colored comet brightens to a 5th or 6th magnitude. With good viewing conditions, such as rural areas with dark skies, the naked eye will be able to see the comet pass by.

Comet 8P/Tuttle has not made an appearance in the inner solar system for 13.6 years. As a periodic comet (with an orbital period of 4.3 years), Tuttle is responsible for the Ursid meteor shower seen in late December.

On January 2, 2008, the 8P/Tuttle comet will be only 0.25 astronomical unit (AU), about 23.24 million miles, from Earth. It will be seen in the Northern Hemisphere at that time. Later in January it will be visible from the Southern Hemisphere.

The comet was discovered by French astronomer P.F.A. Méchain on January 9, 1790, and he later verified its existence on February 1, 1790. However, U.S. astronomer Horace Parnell Tuttle is credited with re-discovering the comet on January 5, 1858, after it was lost for a time from human observations.

The comet will be visible in the Northern Hemisphere near the north celestial pole in Ursa Minor (“The Little Dipper”). A sky map of the comet’s relative position in the sky is found at: http://www.spaceweather.com/images2007/27dec07/skymap_north_tuttle.gif and http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/0008P/2008.html.

A photo galley of 8P/Tuttle is found at: http://www.spaceweather.com/comets/gallery_tuttle.htm.

Orbital data about 8P/Tuttle is found at the NASA/JPL website: http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=109P.

Further information about 8P/Tuttle and the Ursids can be found at the SETI Institute website: http://ursid.seti.org/WGNUrsids.pdf.