8P/Tuttle

2008 perihelion

Under dark skies, the comet was a naked-eye object. On December 30, 2007, it was in close conjunction with the Triangulum Galaxy. On January 1, 2008, it passed Earth at a distance of 0.25282 AU. It was visible telescopically to Southern Hemisphere observers in the constellation Eridanus throughout February 2008.

Predictions that the 2007 Ursid meteor shower could have possibly been stronger than usual due to the return of the comet, did not appear to materialize, as counts were in the range of normal distribution.

Physical characteristics

Radar observations of Comet Tuttle in January 2008 by the Arecibo Observatory show it to be a contact binary. The comet nucleus is estimated at 4.5 km in diameter, using the equivalent diameter of a sphere having a volume equal to the sum of a 3 x sphere.

Exploration

In 2019, 8P/Tuttle was listed as one of 10 backup targets of the European Space Agency's Comet Interceptor mission. Scheduled for launch on 2029, the spacecraft may conduct a flyby of 8P on March 26, 2035 if selected.

Additional images

File:2007-1203 8ptuttle fal martinez-vcastro IMG 1823.jpg|8P/Tuttle on December 3, 2007 from Mount Laguna, California File:07-1230 8PTuttle+M33 martinez vcastro IMG 1913.JPG|8P/Tuttle about 1.2 degrees from M33 on December 30, 2007. File:Comet-tuttle-20080202.jpg|8P/Tuttle on Feb 2, 2008 from the Red Sea coast of Egypt.

References

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220615095439/https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons_batch.cgi?batch=1&COMMAND=%2790000179%27&START_TIME=%272035-Apr-10%27&STOP_TIME=%272035-Apr-25%27&STEP_SIZE=%273%20hours%27&QUANTITIES=%2719%27 |archive-date=2022-06-15 |url-status=live | access-date= 2025-09-25 }} (JPL K215/24 Soln.date: 2022-May-02)

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