Comet Wild 2

Outline The numbers here are measured. The rest of this page is being written.

The path of Comet Wild 2 round the Sun, seen from above and drawn to scale, with the white dot at its nearest point. The faint rings are the paths of Mercury, Venus, the Earth, Mars and Jupiter; it crosses the path of Jupiter. Orbit from NASA/JPL Small-Body Database.

Kind: Comet
Distance: 3.45 au from the Sun on average
Once round: 6.408 years
Path: a long oval (eccentricity 0.537), tilted 3.24°
Size: 4 km across

NASA's Stardust spacecraft flew through its coma in 2004 and brought the dust back to Earth.

The Sun On the atlas In 3D

Still being written

Its tail and its head
Its path round the Sun
How it was found
Spacecraft that have visited
When to see it

Sources: NASA/JPL Small-Body Database.