 Comet Wild 4 photographed by the Zwicky Transient Facility on 26 February 2022. | |
| Discovery [1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Paul Wild |
| Discovery date | January 21, 1990 |
| Designations | |
| P/1990 B1, P/1994 V1 [2] | |
| 1990 X, 1990a, 1994v Wild 4 | |
| Orbital characteristics [3] [4] | |
| Epoch | 17 October 2024 (JD 2460600.5) |
| Observation arc | 34.62 years |
| Number of observations | 6,425 |
| Aphelion | 4.779 AU |
| Perihelion | 2.195 AU |
| Semi-major axis | 3.487 AU |
| Eccentricity | 0.37401 |
| Orbital period | 6.511 years |
| Inclination | 3.604° |
| 20.965° | |
| Argument of periapsis | 173.18° |
| Mean anomaly | 124.64° |
| Last perihelion | 16 July 2022 |
| Next perihelion | 16 January 2029 [5] |
| TJupiter | 3.009 |
| Earth MOID | 1.187 AU |
| Jupiter MOID | 0.188 AU |
| Physical characteristics [3] [6] | |
Mean radius | 3.0–3.5 km (1.9–2.2 mi) |
| Comet total magnitude (M1) | 7.6 |
| Comet nuclear magnitude (M2) | 12.9 |
116P/Wild, also known as Wild 4, is a periodic comet in the Solar System. It fits the definition of an Encke-type comet with (TJupiter > 3; a < aJupiter).
On 4 November 2042, the comet will pass about 0.029 AU (4.3 million km; 2.7 million mi) from 1 Ceres. [3]
