 Comet Wild 4 photographed by the Zwicky Transient Facility on 26 February 2022. | |
| Discovery[1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Paul Wild |
| Discovery date | January 21, 1990 |
| Designations | |
| P/1990 B1, P/1994 V1[2] | |
| 1990 X, 1990a, 1994v Wild 4 | |
| Orbital characteristics[4][5] | |
| Epoch | 17 October 2024 (JD 2460600.5) |
| Observation arc | 34.62 years |
| Number of observations | 6,425 |
| Aphelion | 4.779 AU |
| Perihelion | 2.195 AU |
| Semi-major axis | 3.487 AU |
| Eccentricity | 0.37401 |
| Orbital period | 6.511 years |
| Inclination | 3.604° |
| 20.965° | |
| Argument of periapsis | 173.18° |
| Mean anomaly | 124.64° |
| Last perihelion | 16 July 2022 |
| Next perihelion | 16 January 2029[3] |
| TJupiter | 3.009 |
| Earth MOID | 1.187 AU |
| Jupiter MOID | 0.188 AU |
| Physical characteristics[4][6] | |
Mean radius | 3.0–3.5 km (1.9–2.2 mi) |
| Comet total magnitude (M1) | 7.6 |
| Comet nuclear magnitude (M2) | 12.9 |
116P/Wild, also known as Wild 4, is a periodic comet in the Solar System. It fits the definition of an Encke-type comet with (TJupiter > 3; a < aJupiter).
On 4 November 2042, the comet will pass about 0.029 AU (4.3 million km; 2.7 million mi) from 1 Ceres.[4]
References
edit- ^ P. Wild; U. Hugentobler (23 January 1990). B. G. Marsden (ed.). "Comet Wild (1990a)". IAU Circular. 4950 (1). Bibcode:1990IAUC.4950....1W.
- ^ "Comet Names and Designations". International Comet Quarterly. Retrieved 21 July 2025.
- ^ "Horizons Batch for 116P/Wild 4 (90001000) on 2029-Jan-16" (Perihelion occurs when rdot flips from negative to positive). JPL Horizons. Retrieved 2023-07-06. (JPL#K223/36 Soln.date: 2023-Jul-05)
- ^ a b c "116P/Wild 4 – JPL Small-Body Database Lookup". ssd.jpl.nasa.gov. Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
- ^ "116P/Wild Orbit". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
- ^ P. L. Lamy; I. Toth; Y. R. Fernández; H. A. Weaver (2004). "The Sizes, Shapes, Albedos, and Colors of Cometary Nuclei" (PDF). Comets II. pp. 223–264. JSTOR j.ctv1v7zdq5.22. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-10-09. Retrieved 2025-07-21.
External links
edit- 116P/Wild at the JPL Small-Body Database
- 116P/Wild 4 – Seiichi Yoshida @ aerith.net
- 116P at Kronk's Cometography
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