178P/Hug-Bell (0178P)

TRY AGAIN 2026

Type: Periodic Perihelion date: 21 June 2027 Perihelion distance (q): 1.9 Aphelion distance (Q) : 5.4 Period (years): 6.9 Eccentricity (e): 0.48 Inclination (i): 11.1 JPL orbit diagram COBS lightcurve Atlas Amateurs Gary Hug and Graham E. Bell, Eskridge, KS, reported their discovery of a 19th magnitude comet on 10 December 2006, showing a faint tail in p.a. 285 deg on CCD images taken with a 0.3-m Schmidt-Cassegrain reflector during the course of their minor planet search and follow up program. Following posting on the NEO Confirmation Page, L. Sarounova (Ondrejov, 0.65-m reflector) obtained observations on 11 December showing a tail 20" long in p.a. about 300 deg. C. Hergenrother, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, reported that a co-added 1200-s R-band image obtained with the 1.54-m Kuiper telescope on 11 December showed a 15" coma and a slightly curved tail > 1' long in p.a. 280 deg. All of the available astrometry (including prediscovery observations on 10 October and 7 December by LINEAR) suggested a perihelion in June at a distance of 1.9 AU. D Tibbets and Gary Hug recovered comet 1999 X1 (Hug-Bell) on 16 July 1999 with the 0.7-m relector at the Farpoint Observatory Eskridge, Kansas. The correction to the perihelion time predicted on MPC 48383 was -0.12 day. Observations (VEMag = visual equivalent magnitude) Date 10x10 mag Error VEmag Coma ' 30-Oct-13 18.07 0.11 17.7 0.3 12-Nov-13 17.56 0.12 17.3 0.2 28-Nov-13 17.36 0.07 17.0 0.3 14-Dec-13 17.14 0.05 16.7 0.3 19-Jan-14 17.64 0.10 16.9 0.2 29-Jan-14 18.05 0.09 17.7 0.2 18-Sep-20 18.2 0.4 11-Nov-20 17.5 0.4 07-Dec-20 17.5 0.4 20-Dec-20 17.2 0.4 17-Jan-21 17.7 0.4 08-Feb-21 18.2 0.4 14-Feb-21 18.3 0.4 16-Mar-21 19.0 0.4 13-Apr-21 19.7 0.4