116P/Wild (0116P)

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Type: Periodic Perihelion date: 16 July 2022 Perihelion distance (q): 2.2 Aphelion distance (Q) : 4.8 Period (years): 6.5 Eccentricity (e): 0.37 Inclination (i): 3.6 JPL orbit diagram COBS lightcurve The comet was discovered by Paul Wild (Astronomical Institute, Berne University, Switzerland) on 21 January 1990. He described the comet as strongly condensed, with a total magnitude of 13.5-14.0. There was a fan-shaped tail extending about 1 arc minute toward the northwest. 116P/Wild, also known as Wild 4, fits the definition of an Encke-type comet with (TJupiter > 3; a < aJupiter). Revised orbit calculations by Wild indicated the comet passed close to Jupiter during July 1987, with the result that the semimajor axis changed from 4.6 to 3.4 and the eccentricity from 0.17 to 0.41. The comet's maximum magnitude was consistently estimated as about 12. Because of the large perihelion distance, this value remained virtually unchanged from about late February until late April 1990. The comet's second appearance began on 9 November 1994, when it was recovered by J. V. Scotti (Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, Arizona, USA). The comet's image was then indistinguishable from that of a star and Scotti estimated the magnitude as 20.4-20.7. The position indicated the predicted orbit needed a correction of -0.3 day. The comet steadily brightened as it approached its 31 August 1996 perihelion date. By the beginning of 1996 it was already brighter than magnitude 13. By summer it had reached a maximum brightness of 12, and then began a slow fading thereafter. The comet reached a minimum solar elongation of only 40' on 30 October. The comet next passed perihelion on 21 January 2003 and came within 1.29 AU of Earth during the first days of May 2003. The comet was brightest during the period of April into early June, when the total magnitude was typically estimated within the range of 11.5 to 12. The coma was then 1-1.5 arc minute across. On 4 November 2042 it will pass about 0.029 AU (4,300,000 km) from Ceres. Observations (VEMag = visual equivalent magnitude) Date 10x10 mag Error VEmag Coma ' 18-Dec-14 17.98 0.16 15.2 0.2 29-Dec-14 17.84 0.16 17.6 0.2 17-Feb-15 17.13 0.07 17.0 0.2 11-Mar-15 18.16 0.03 18.0 0.2 25-Oct-15 15.65 0.08 13.5 0.2 01-Nov-15 15.46 0.10 12.1 0.3 17-Nov-15 15.38 0.05 13.6 0.4 10-Dec-15 15.41 0.23 13.6 0.3 18-Dec-15 15.40 0.03 13.9 0.3 07-Feb-16 15.27 0.02 13.5 0.5 21-Feb-16 15.16 0.02 13.2 0.5 04-Mar-16 15.18 0.02 13.5 0.5 13-Apr-16 14.83 0.01 12.8 0.7 01-May-16 14.46 0.04 11.9 0.9 12-May-16 14.45 0.01 12.3 1.0 28-May-16 14.17 0.02 12.3 1.1 08-Jun-16 14.71 0.00 12.0 1.1 12-Jun-16 14.79 0.01 12.0 1.0 26-Jun-16 15.32 0.02 11.9 0.7 24-Aug-16 16.87 0.01 13.6 0.2 02-Sep-16 17.09 0.01 15.0 0.2 19-Sep-16 17.29 0.19 14.2 0.2 08-Mar-22 13.3 2.6 31-Mar-22 13.1 2.4 26-Apr-22 15.43 0.01 14.1 1.5 05-May-22 14.2 0.8 16-May-22 14.9 0.6 22-May-22 15.36 0.01 13.6 1.5