Comet · 81P
81P/Wild 2
Dust samples collected by Stardust
Stardust flew through Wild 2’s coma, collecting particles in aerogel and returning them to Earth. Encounter images resolved the comet’s nucleus.
Understand this world
From a nucleus to a coma and tailsFollow energy and material from an irregular comet nucleus into its surrounding gas and dust, using Rosetta’s observations of 67P. · 3 minMeasurements
- Effective diameter
- 4 km
- Semimajor axis
- 3.45 AU
- Orbital period
- 2,340.34 Earth days
Orbit, physical values and uncertainties
- eccentricity
- .5373989073846863 ± 7.8397E-8
- semi-major axis
- 3.449745576963111 au ± 7.5915E-8
- perihelion distance
- 1.595856073147981 au ± 2.743E-7
- inclination; angle with respect to x-y ecliptic plane
- 3.237004173608168 deg ± 8.4654E-6
- longitude of the ascending node
- 136.1102208500619 deg ± .00017571
- argument of perihelion
- 41.72523085114398 deg ± .00017561
- mean anomaly
- 187.5966814232084 deg ± 1.2954E-5
- time of perihelion passage
- 2459929.284579774298 TDB ± 9.7616E-5
- sidereal orbital period
- 2340.340383523585 d ± 7.7252E-5
- mean motion
- .1538237781711004 deg/d ± 5.0776E-9
- aphelion distance
- 5.303635080778242 au ± 1.1671E-7
- comet total magnitude
- 9.8 ± 0.8
- comet total magnitude slope
- 12.5
- comet nuclear magnitude
- 12.9 ± 0.8
- comet nuclear magnitude slope
- 5.
- comet nuclear phase coefficient
- 0.03
- diameter
- 4.0 km
Published JPL orbital elements describe their stated epoch; they are not current positions. Small-body diameters can be effective/model-dependent sizes, not spherical shapes. Missing measurements remain unavailable. Pluto’s diameter uses the New Horizons reference rather than an empty SBDB field. Orbital epoch: JD 2458808.5 TDB.
Object reference ↗Missions & milestones
1 launches · 0 connected events
These are target-related flights and every connected programme record in the production catalogue. A connected event may concern another stage or target of the same journey. Launch outcome does not establish arrival or current operation.
Stardust
February 7, 1999 · UTC
Complete source cohort: 9,386 records.