List of comets

From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change

This is a list of some comets in the solar system.

Periodic comets visit us again and again. Non-periodic comets visit us only once. On this list there is a "P" in front of the periodic comets. In front of non-periodic comets there is a "C". There is sometimes a number in front of the "P": it shows the number of times people saw the periodic comet visiting us.

[change] Comets we usually know by a name

Comet Borrelly (19P/Borrelly)
Comet Encke (2P/Encke)
Comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1)
Comet Halley (1P/Halley, often called Halley's Comet)
Comet Humason (C/1961 R1)
Comet Hyakutake (C/1996 B2)
Comet Ikeya-Seki (C/1965 S1)
Comet Kohoutek (C/1973 E1)
Comet Mrkos (C/1957 P1)
Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 (D/1993 F2)
Comet Skjellerup-Maristany (C/1927 X1)
Comet West (C/1975 V1)
Great Comet of 1807 (C/1807 R1)
Great Comet of 1811 (C/1811 F1)
Great March Comet of 1843 (C/1843 D1)
Great January Comet (C/1910 A1)
"Miss Mitchell's Comet" (today called C/1847 T1, this comet brought fame to Maria Mitchell)

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

[change] Periodic comets

Periodic comets have a special place in astronomy, because their orbits are often the same. We know when they will visit us, and we can plan to watch them, and send space probes to look at them.

On August 24, 1994, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) standardized the way we give names to this type of comets. It made a system of letters and numbers (and sometimes a name). This system tells us which comet is which. The IAU chose the letter P for periodic comets and D for periodic comets that were lost or which broke into pieces. Other letters are C for non-periodic comets, and X for comets where we do not know their orbits. It also allows for type changes by using A for objects people say are asteroids. Each name starts with a number, counting up and make the name unique: no two comets have the same name.