Comet D'Arrest
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6P/d'Arrest (also known as d'Arrest's Comet or Comet d'Arrest) is a periodic Jupiter-family comet in the Solar System, orbiting between Mars and Jupiter. It passed from the Earth on August 12, 1976. The most recent perihelion passage took place on September 17, 2021, when the comet had a
solar elongation In astronomy, a planet's elongation is the angular separation between the Sun and the planet, with Earth as the reference point. The greatest elongation of a given inferior planet occurs when this planet's position, in its orbital path around t ...
of 95 degrees at approximately apparent magnitude of 10. The comet last came to perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on March 2, 2015, but it was in an unfavorable apparition as it had a solar elongation of less than 30 degrees from October 2014 until May 2015. In 1991, Andrea Carusi and Giovanni B. Valsecchi ( Istituto Astrofisica Spaziale, Rome), and Ľubor Kresák and
Margita Kresáková Margita Kresáková (; 21 May 1927 – 1994) was a Slovak astronomer. She discovered comet C/1954 O1 on 28 July 1954, becoming just the second woman to discover a comet at the Skalnaté pleso Observatory. She married Slovak astronomer Ľubor Kr ...
( Slovak Astronomical Institute, Bratislava) independently suggested this comet was the same as a comet observed by Philippe de La Hire in 1678. It was first observed by Heinrich Ludwig d'Arrest, in Leipzig, Germany, on 28th and 30 June 1851. The comet nucleus is estimated at about 3.2 km in diameter. 6P/d was one of a trio of comets targeted by the ill-fated CONTOUR mission, an unmanned discovery program mission, that was launched but contact was lost soon after reaching orbit. If it had been functional, the planned date for CONTOUR's study of d'Arrest would have been 2008, after visiting two other comets. Around 2007, 6P/d was one of nine comets examined for a comet sample return mission study. In the 2010s a comet surface sample return mission was selected as the New Frontiers Program finalist, but the recently studied
comet 67P A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are ...
was chosen as the selected target.


See also

*
List of missions to comets As of 2013, the United States, the Soviet Union, Japan, and the European Space Agency have conducted missions to comets. See also *List of missions to minor planets (includes asteroids) *List of minor planets and comets visited by spacecraft ...


References


External links


Orbital simulation
from JPL (Java)
Horizons Ephemeris

6P/d'Arrest at CometBase database

Elements and Ephemeris for 6P/d'Arrest
–
Minor Planet Center The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the official body for observing and reporting on minor planets under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Founded in 1947, it operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Function ...

6P/d'Arrest
– Seiichi Yoshida @ aerith.net

–
Gary W. Kronk Gary W. Kronk (born 1956) is an American amateur astronomer and writer. Biography Kronk was born in Granite City, Illinois, United States, on March 23, 1956. He developed an interest in space at an early age, during the time of the first manned ...
's Cometography {{DEFAULTSORT:d'arrest, 006P Periodic comets 0006 Comets in 2015 20210917 18510628