C/2006 P1 (McNaught)The Great Comet of 2007 — brightest comet in over 40 years
Comet McNaught
Discovered in August 2006 by British-Australian astronomer Robert McNaught, C/2006 P1 became the Great Comet of 2007 — the brightest comet seen in over 40 years, reaching a peak magnitude near -5.5 and briefly visible worldwide in broad daylight around its 12 January 2007 perihelion. After perihelion it unfurled a spectacular, broadly fanned, filamentary dust tail stretching some 35 degrees across the evening sky, an unforgettable sight for Southern Hemisphere observers. Arriving from the Oort cloud on a near-parabolic orbit, it is effectively a once-in-many-millennia visitor.
- Designation
- C/2006 P1 (McNaught)
- Type
- Great comet
- Orbital period
- Non-periodic (~Long-period, ~92,600 years)
- Discovery
- Robert H. McNaught, 7 August 2006 (Uppsala Southern Schmidt Telescope, Siding Spring Observatory, Australia)
