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Comets » 

Comet 9P/Tempel

Above the horizon.  Rise: 10:42 | Tran: 18:35 | Set: 2:31
Alt: 53.89°   Az: 138.19°   Direction: South-East

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.

Comet 9P/Tempel is in the constellation of Taurus, at a distance of 683,854,629.0 kilometers from Earth. The current Right Ascension is 03h 51m 36s and the Declination is +21° 00’ 26” (apparent coordinates). The predicted magnitude of Comet 9P/Tempel is 22.37 (data provided by JPL Horizons).

Finder Charts

Map showing Comet 9P/Tempel in Taurus on February, 08 2025. Field of view: 50x30 degrees
View interactive star map
Sky map showing Comet 9P/Tempel in Taurus on February, 08 2025. Field of view: 15x9 degrees. View in interactive sky chart

High precision deep sky finder chart, 60 arcmin wide, showing where Comet 9P/Tempel is right now. Click on the image to see a more detailed fullscreen tracker view.

9P/Tempel
RA: 03h 50m 08s
Dec: +20° 55’ 57”
Deep sky finder chart for Comet 9P/Tempel. Field of view: 60x40 arcmins. View in deep sky object tracker

Also check out Where is Comet 9P/Tempel?, a page that provides all the information needed to find Comet 9P/Tempel in the sky and additional links to sky charts.

Celestial Coordinates

Apparent

03h 51m 36s
+21° 00’ 26”
22h 20m 27s
02h 12m 03s

J2000

03h 50m 08s
+20° 55’ 57”

Additional Information

Taurus
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
22.37

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

Today's rise, transit and set times of Comet 9P/Tempel from Greenwich, UK (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

Azimuth: 69.0°
Max altitude: 59.5°
Azimuth: 291.0°
  • 9P/Tempel is above the horizon from Greenwich, UK.
  • Right now it is placed in the South-East direction at an altitude of 53.89° above the horizon.
  • Given its current magnitude, 9P/Tempel is visible only through long exposure photography.
  • Go to interactive sky chart

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 683,854,629.0 kilometers, equivalent to 4.5712858465 Astronomical Units. Light takes 38m 1.094s to travel from Comet 9P/Tempel and arrive to us.

683,854,629.0
4.5712858465
38m 1.094s

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

Chart of the distance of Comet 9P/Tempel from Earth in Astronomical Units (au)

The value of the reported distance might be somewhat inaccurate around the times of closest approach for objects passing extremely close to Earth. The value of the distance of 9P/Tempel from Earth is also available as a real time updated value in the Live Position and Data Tracker.

Closest Approach

Between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2099, the closest approach of Comet 9P/Tempel to Earth happens on Wed May 4 2005 at a distance of 0.711500 Astronomical Units, or 106,438,909 kilometers:

Wed May 4 2005
106,438,909
0.711500

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

Light Curve

The following chart is the predicted light curve (visual magnitude as a function of time) of Comet 9P/Tempel, according to the most recent ephemerides data. Magnitude data is sampled with a 2 days interval and there might be inaccuracies for objects changing brightness very rapidly during the course of a few days. For comets there could be large discrepancies between the observed and predicted brightness because of their highly dynamic behaviour.

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 13 March 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 2016-Aug-02 13:39:41
2,457,603.0692 JD
Next perihelion transit 2022-Mar-02 22:06
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

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
2025 Feb 01 03h 51m 14s +20° 54’ 16” 22.31 Taurus
2025 Feb 02 03h 51m 14s +20° 54’ 56” 22.31 Taurus
2025 Feb 03 03h 51m 15s +20° 55’ 38” 22.32 Taurus
2025 Feb 04 03h 51m 17s +20° 56’ 23” 22.33 Taurus
2025 Feb 05 03h 51m 19s +20° 57’ 10” 22.34 Taurus
2025 Feb 06 03h 51m 23s +20° 58’ 00” 22.35 Taurus
2025 Feb 07 03h 51m 27s +20° 58’ 53” 22.35 Taurus
2025 Feb 08 03h 51m 32s +20° 59’ 46” 22.36 Taurus
2025 Feb 09 03h 51m 39s +21° 00’ 43” 22.37 Taurus
2025 Feb 10 03h 51m 46s +21° 01’ 43” 22.38 Taurus
2025 Feb 11 03h 51m 54s +21° 02’ 45” 22.38 Taurus
2025 Feb 12 03h 52m 03s +21° 03’ 48” 22.39 Taurus
2025 Feb 13 03h 52m 12s +21° 04’ 54” 22.40 Taurus
2025 Feb 14 03h 52m 23s +21° 06’ 03” 22.41 Taurus

Additional Resources