Comet 9P/Tempel (also known as comet Tempel 1) was discovered by Ernst Tempel on April 3, 1867. It has an orbital period of 5.6 years and travels on a relatively highly elliptical path around the Sun, with a perihelion distance of 1.5 astronomical units (AU) and an aphelion distance of 4.8 AU. The comet is known for its famous encounter with NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft in 2005, during which a projectile was launched to impact the surface of the comet, creating a crater and ejecting debris. The event provided scientists with valuable data about the composition and structure of comets, as well as their potential as carriers of water and organic molecules.

Find it in the Sky

Chose a date & time and view the position of comet 9P/Tempel in the sky on our interactive planetarium.

Time: : UTC

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Comet 9P/Tempel

Above the horizon. Rise: 3:24 | Tran: 12:21 | Set: 21:18

Alt: 31.57° Az: 90.57° Direction: East

Comet 9P/Tempel is in the constellation of Taurus, at a distance of 861,294,522.0 kilometers from Earth. The current Right Ascension is 05h 35m 36s and the Declination is +25° 25’ 54” (apparent coordinates). The estimated magnitude of comet 9P/Tempel, computed using JPL Horizons's data, is 22.82).

Finder Charts

The sky charts below show, at different resolutions, the position of comet 9P/Tempel in the sky. Click on each chart to access the interactive star map tool.

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Star map showing the position of comet 9P/Tempel in the constellation of Taurus on F, d Y. Field of view: 50x30 degrees. View interactive star map.

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Star map showing the position of comet 9P/Tempel in the constellation of Taurus on F, d Y. Field of view: 15x9 degrees. View in interactive star map.

The following map uses photographic imagery from the Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) to realistically visualize the precise position of comet 9P/Tempel against the stars in the background. The horizontal size of the map measures 60 arcminutes. Click on the image to access a more detailed full-screen view.

9P/Tempel
RA: 05h 34m 01s
Dec: +25° 24’ 58”

Simplified high-resolution deep sky chart showing the current position of comet 9P/Tempel. Field of view: 60 x 40 arcminutes. Go to the dedicated page

Equatorial Coordinates

Apparent

Right Ascension 05h 35m 36s

Declination +25° 25’ 54”

Hour Angle 19h 17m 27s

Sidereal Time 00h 53m 04s

J2000

Right Ascension 05h 34m 01s

Declination +25° 24’ 58”

Additional Information

Constellation Taurus

Observed Magnitude (COBS) n/a

Coma Diameter (COBS) n/a

Tail Length (COBS) n/a

Observation Date (COBS) n/a

Predicted Magnitude (JPL) 22.82

The observed values of Magnitude, Coma Diameter and Tail Length are derived from the most recent observation recorded at the Comet Observers Database. The value of Predicted Magnitude comes from the JPL Horizons ephemerides service and, in the case of comets, might be inaccurate given the highly dynamic and unpredictable behavior of these objects. When available, please refer to the Observed Magnitude value and consider the Predicted Magnitude as a directional indication. We acknowledge with thanks the comet observations from the COBS Comet Observation Database contributed by observers worldwide and used in this table to report recent comet observations.

Rise and Set Times

The following table lists today's rise, transit and set times of comet 9P/Tempel from Kibæk, Dinamarca (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/Copenhagen):

Azimuth: 64.6° RISE 3:24

Max altitude: 59.4° TRANSIT 12:21

Azimuth: 295.4° SET 21:18

If you need to access this information frequently for your observations, you can create a simple customized Quick Access page, so that you can easily bookmark it in your browser favorites or add a shortcut to your mobile phones' home screen.

Distance from Earth

The distance of comet 9P/Tempel from Earth is currently 861,294,522.0 kilometers, equivalent to 5.7573982702 Astronomical Units. Light takes 47m 52.969s to travel from comet 9P/Tempel and arrive to us.

Distance Km 861,294,522.0

Distance AU 5.7573982702

Light Travel Time 47m 52.969s

The following graph shows the distance of comet 9P/Tempel from Earth as a function of time. In the chart the distance is measured in Astronomical Units and the data is sampled with an interval of 1 day.

Chart of the distance of comet 9P/Tempel from Earth in Astronomical Units (au)
Note: The values in this chart may not be entirely accurate around the time of closest approach for objects passing very close to Earth at high speed (e.g., Near-Earth Objects).

The value of the distance of 9P/Tempel from Earth is also available as a real time updated value in the live position tracker.

Closest Approach to Earth

In the period between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2099, the closest approach of comet 9P/Tempel to Earth happened on Wednesday 4 May 2005 at a distance of 0.711500 Astronomical Units, or 106,438,909 kilometers:

Date Wednesday 4 May 2005

Distance Kilometers 106,438,909

Distance AU 0.711500

Note: the values for the closest approach are computed with a sampling interval of 1 day.

Light Curve

The following chart shows the light curve of comet 9P/Tempel, i.e., its apparent magnitude as a function of time. The curve is calculated using the latest ephemerides provided by JPL Horizons. The magnitude data is sampled with the interval of 2 days. Because of this sampling, inaccuracies may occur for objects that have large variations of brightness over a few days. For comets, large discrepancies can arise between the calculated brightness and the observations due to their highly dynamic, and not always precisely predictable, behavior.

Chart of the magnitude of comet 9P/Tempel as a function of time

Orbital Elements

The following table lists the orbital elements of comet 9P/Tempel at epoch March, 13 2016 00:00 UTC (JD: 2457461.5). Source: JPL Small-Body Database

Element	Symbol	Value
Orbit eccentricity	e	0.50971530
Orbit inclination	i	10.47337656°
Perihelion distance	q	1.54253676 AU 230,760,215 km
Aphelion distance	Q	4.74987567 AU 710,571,287 km
Semi-major axis	a	3.14620621 AU 470,665,751 km
Orbital period	period	5.5807 years 2,038.3521 days
Date of perihelion transit	Tp	August 2, 2016 2,457,603.0692 JD
Next perihelion transit		March 2, 2022 2,459,641.4213 JD
Argument of perihelion	peri	179.19604570871°
Longitude of the ascending node	node	68.75447718428°
Mean anomaly	M	334.9969963096°
Mean motion	n	0.17661326°/day

Orbit Visualization

The following chart is a 3D animated visualization of the orbit of comet 9P/Tempel relative to the other major objects in the Solar System. You can access more advanced features using our 3D Solar System Viewer.

15 Days Ephemeris

The following table lists the ephemerides of comet 9P/Tempel computed for the past and next 7 days, with a 24 hours interval. Apparent celestial coordinates are provided.

Date	Right AscensionR.A.	DeclinationDec.	MagnitudeMag	Constellation
Jun 24 2025	05h 28m 34s	+25° 16’ 20”	22.84	Taurus
Jun 25 2025	05h 29m 33s	+25° 17’ 43”	22.83	Taurus
Jun 26 2025	05h 30m 31s	+25° 19’ 05”	22.83	Taurus
Jun 27 2025	05h 31m 29s	+25° 20’ 25”	22.83	Taurus
Jun 28 2025	05h 32m 28s	+25° 21’ 44”	22.83	Taurus
Jun 29 2025	05h 33m 26s	+25° 23’ 02”	22.83	Taurus
Jun 30 2025	05h 34m 24s	+25° 24’ 20”	22.82	Taurus
Jul 01 2025	05h 35m 22s	+25° 25’ 36”	22.82	Taurus
Jul 02 2025	05h 36m 20s	+25° 26’ 52”	22.82	Taurus
Jul 03 2025	05h 37m 18s	+25° 28’ 06”	22.82	Taurus
Jul 04 2025	05h 38m 16s	+25° 29’ 19”	22.81	Taurus
Jul 05 2025	05h 39m 14s	+25° 30’ 30”	22.81	Taurus
Jul 06 2025	05h 40m 11s	+25° 31’ 42”	22.81	Taurus
Jul 07 2025	05h 41m 09s	+25° 32’ 52”	22.80	Taurus

Ephemeris Calculator

Compute the position of comet 9P/Tempel for any date and time between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2099 and display the results on an interactive star map.