85P/Boethin

85P/Boethin

Discovery
Discovered by:	Leo Boethin
Discovery date:	January 4, 1975
Alternate designations:	85P/1975 A1; 1975 I; 1975a; 85P/1985 T2; 1986 I; 1985n
Orbital characteristics A
Epoch:	January 10, 1986 (JD 2446440.5)
Aphelion distance:	20.7560 AU
Perihelion distance:	1.1143 AU
Semi-major axis:	11.67560 AU
Eccentricity:	0.7777
Orbital period:	11.225 a
Inclination:	5.756°
Last perihelion:	December 16, 2008 (unobserved)
Next perihelion:	2020 (lost?)

Comet Boethin (officially 85P/Boethin) is a periodic comet discovered in 1975 by Reverend Leo Boethin. It appeared again in 1986 January as expected. Although the comet was next expected at perihelion on 1997 April, no observations were reported.

It was to be a target of NASA's EPOXI comet-exploration mission in December 2008; however, the comet was not recovered in time to set up the trajectory for the flyby with sufficient accuracy. It is thought that the comet may have broken into pieces too small for visual detection.^[1]

References

1. ^ NASA and the Case of the Missing Comet

External links

• 85P past, present and future orbital elements
• "Deep Impact Flyby Spacecraft Ready For New Mission" (from space.com, July 14, 2005)
• 85P/Boethin history (from cometography.com)

Periodic comets (by number)
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