178P/Hug–Bell

Periodic comet October 2025 178P/Hug–Bell 178P 2021-01-07 image ZTF-sso-615-zg-size-5.6arcmin.png Comet Hug–Bell photographed from the Zwicky Transient Facility on 7 January 2021 IAUC_7331 Gary HugGraham E. Bell Eskridge, Kansas 10 December 1999 P/1999 X1,IAUC_7331 P/2006 O1IAUC_8730 jpldata MPC 4 June 2027 (JD 2461560.5) 21.43 years 10 October 1999 1,074 1.880 AU 5.385 AU 3.633 AU 0.48245 6.924 years 11.091° 102.79° 297.95° 220.91° 2.871 0.971 AU 0.655 AU jpldata 1.77 km miKwon_2026 13.2 15.9 16 July 2020 21 June 2027Horizons2027 178P/Hug–Bell is a Jupiter-family comet with a 6.9-year orbit around the Sun. It was discovered by Northeast Kansas Amateur Astronomers' League members Gary Hug and Graham Bell and is thought to be the first periodic comet to be discovered by amateurs.IAUC_7331 It was declared a comet less than two days after its initial discovery, after having its course confirmed on previous images.icstars1 Orbit Hug–Bell's orbital period is about seven years; its orbit is eccentric, though less so than many comets. Hug–Bell's orbit lies entirely outside the orbit of Mars, but at its aphelion overlaps in solar distance with the orbit of Jupiter. Because it never comes closer to the Sun than about 2 AU e6km unit, it is never expected to be a very bright comet, with a typical perihelion magnitude of 18–19.Yoshida References Horizons Batch for 178P/Hug–Bell on 2027-Jun-21 JPL Horizons Perihelion occurs when rdot flips from negative to positive https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons_batch.cgi?batch=1&COMMAND=%27178P%27&START_TIME=%272027-Jun-18%27&STOP_TIME=%272027-Jun-24%27&STEP_SIZE=%273%20hours%27&QUANTITIES=%2719%27 2023-07-06 (JPL#50/Soln.date: 2021-Apr-15) G. Hug G. E. Bell etal D. W. Green Comet P/1999 X1 (Hug–Bell) http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/iauc/07300/07331.html IAU Circular 1999-12-11 7331 1 1999IAUC.7331....1B D. Tibbets G. Hug D. W. Green Comet P/1999 X1 2006 O1 (Hug–Bell) http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/iauc/08700/08730.html IAU Circular 2006-07-17 8730 1 2006IAUC.8730....1T J. Winter V. Winter Comet Hug–Bell Discovery! http://www.icstars.com/HTML/HugBell/index.html ICSTARS Astronomy 2006-10-18 2006-10-19 https://web.archive.org/web/20061019013945/http://www.icstars.com/HTML/HugBell/index.html live 178P/Hug–Bell – JPL Small-Body Database Lookup https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html#/?sstr=178P ssd.jpl.nasa.gov Jet Propulsion Laboratory 2025-10-25 Y. G. Kwon D. W. Dahlen J. R. Masiero etal COSINE (Cometary Object Study Investigating their Nature and Evolution) II: Colors and Sizes of Comet Nuclei 2026 2609.32110 astro-ph.EP 178P/Hug–Bell Orbit http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?object_id=178P Minor Planet Center 2014-06-20 S. Yoshida 178P/Hug–Bell (1999) http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/0178P/1999X1.html www.aerith.net 2006-10-18 2007-09-30 https://web.archive.org/web/20070930015419/http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/0178P/1999X1.html live External links 1000283 178P 178P/Hug–Bell at the Minor Planet Center database 178P/Hug–Bell at Seiichi Yoshida's website 177P/Barnard 179P/Jedicke Category:Periodic comets 0178 0178 0178 0178 0178