55P/Tempel–Tuttle

H. P. Tuttle

Tempel-Tuttle ( official name 55P/Tempel-Tuttle ) is a short- period comet, which was discovered on 19 December 1865 by Ernst Wilhelm Leberecht Temple and on January 6, 1866 by Horace Parnell Tuttle independently.

Orbit

The comet moves in around 33 years on an elliptical orbit between 0.98 ( perihelion ) and 19.70 ( aphelion ) astronomical units around the sun, the orbital eccentricity is 0.906. The orbit is inclined about 18 ° to the ecliptic, as the comet but retrograde ( decreasing) moves around the sun, is given its orbital inclination of 162 °. Tempel-Tuttle passes in a 5:14 orbital resonance with the planet Jupiter around the Sun. This has the consequence that the orbit of the comet is only slightly perturbed by the gravity of the giant planets.

History

From his return in the years 1899 and 1932 are no observations of the comet, so that the comet was rediscovered only in 1965 after its discovery 1865/66. The latest up to perihelion passage took place on 28 February 1998. Path calculations have shown that it is also at a sighting of a comet in 1366 is Tempel-Tuttle, who had at that time approximately up to 0,023 astronomical units to the earth. Also, in another approach in 1699 ( 0.064 AU), the comet was observed.

Meteor Shower

At each round of the comet loses matter in the form of gases, rock and dust particles. Every year, around the November 17 around the Earth crosses the orbit of the comet Tempel-Tuttle. This reach comet particles at high velocity into the atmosphere and can be observed as the Leonids meteor shower of. The identification of Tempel-Tuttle as the parent body of the Leonid succeeded the astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli in 1867.