List of Periodic Comets
The following table lists the major periodic comets in our solar system. Periodic comets, also called short-period comets, have orbital periods of less than 200 years or which have been observed during at least one perihelion passage. Tail debris from some comets are what cause certain annual meteor showers.
NOTE: Comets PanSTARRS and ISON are non-periodic comets and hence not listed here. Such comets have a C/ nomenclature, as opposed to periodic comets that have a P/ designation.
- Comet
- Period (yrs)
- Perihelion (AU)
- Ashbrook-Jackson
- 7.49
- 2.316
- Borrelly
- 6.88
- 1.365
- Brooks 2
- 6.89
- 1.843
- Bus
- 6.52
- 2.183
- Ciffreo
- 7.23
- 1.70877
- Encke
- 3.28
- 0.331
- Forbes
- 6.13
- 1.44684
- Gehrels 3
- 8.11
- 3.427
- Giclas
- 6.96
- 1.84679
- Halley
- 76
- 0.587
- Harrington
- 6.78
- 1.572
- Hartley 3
- 6.84
- 2.462
- Holmes
- 7.09
- 2.177
- Howell
- 5.58
- 1.40914
- Kohoutek
- 6.67
- 1.785
- Kojima
- 7.85
- 2.399
- Lovas 2
- 6.76
- 1.462
- Mry
- 8.74
- 2.027
- Neujmin 3
- 10.63
- 2.001
- Reinmuth 2
- 6.64
- 1.893
- Russell 2
- 7.38
- 2.276
- Schmasse
- 8.22
- 1.20216
- Schuster
- 7.26
- 1.53924
- Schwassman-Wachmann 1
- 14.85
- 5.772
- Schwassman-Wachmann 2
- 6.39
- 2.07
- Shajn-Schaldach
- 7.49
- 2.345
- Slghter-Burnham
- 11.6
- 2.544
- Smirnova-Chernykh
- 8.59
- 3.575
- Swift-Tuttle
- 135.29
- 0.95822
- Tempel 1
- 5.5
- 1.494
- Tempel 2
- 5.48
- 1.484
- Tuttle
- 13.51
- 0.998
- Urata-Nijima
- 6.64
- 1.457
- Vaisala 1
- 10.78
- 1.78302
- van Houten
- 16.87
- 4.155
- West-Kohoutek-Ikemura
- 6.41
- 1.577
- Whipple
- 8.53
- 3.094
- Wild 3
- 6.91
- 2.299
- Wiseman-Skiff
- 6.53
- 1.509