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0.5 AU

Borrelly's Comet (19P/Borrelly)

Comet

A short-period comet discovered in 1904 that orbits the Sun every 6.9 years and was the second comet ever photographed up close during NASA's Deep Space 1 flyby in 2001.

Key Facts

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Wikipedia

mass

2.0000e+13 kg

radius

2.4 km

hill radius

292.42 km

semi-major axis

3.607 AU

eccentricity

0.638

inclination

29.319º

longitude of the ascending node

74.301º

argument of periapsis

351.862º

orbital period

6.85 years

discovery date

December 28, 1904

discovered by

Alphonse Borrelly

discovery location

Marseille

dimensions

4.8 kilometers in diameter

albedo

0.022

material composition

Dark, carbon-rich surface materials
Spacecraft Visits
Deep Space 1

Flyby

NASA

Launched in 1998, visited in 2001

Deep Space 1 captured the best images ever taken of a comet nucleus during its September 22, 2001 flyby of Borrelly, passing within 2,200 kilometers of the comet while revealing its dark, irregular surface features.

Other Comets
67P/C–G
Halley
Hale-Bopp
Tempel 1
Hartley 2
Wild 2