68P/Klemola | |
Discovery Date: | November 1965 |
Designations: | 1965j 1965 VI, 1976j, 1976 X, 1987th, 1987th XIV |
Semimajor: | 4.896 AU |
Perihelion: | 1.755 AU |
Aphelion: | 8.032 AU |
Eccentricity: | 0.6407 |
Period: | 10.82 a |
Inclination: | 11.1° |
Last P: | November 9, 2019[1] January 20, 2009 |
Next P: | 2030-Nov-04 |
68P/Klemola or Klemola's Comet is a periodic comet, which belongs to Jupiter's comet family, that was discovered in 1965 by American astronomer in Argentinian Yale-Columbia Southern Station. Its orbital period is 10.82 years.
It was observed at the next predicted apparition by Gérard Sause at the Observatoire de Haute Provence, France on 6 August 1976 with a brightness of magnitude 12. It was successfully observed in 1987 when J. Gibson of the Palomar Observatory, California, obtained images with the 1.5-meter reflector on 16 February. It appeared essentially stellar, with a faint magnitude of 19. It was observed again on 29 March 1997 by Carl W. Hergenrother at the F. L. Whipple Observatory, with perihelion on 1 May 1998.
68P came to opposition on 14 June 2019 and perihelion on November 9, 2019.