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Loading contentComets with orbital periods longer than ~200 years, arriving on nearly parabolic orbits from all directions.
Comets on enormous orbits reaching deep into the outer Solar System, arriving from the Oort cloud after millions of years — the source of most great comets.
6 modelled members.
The 'Great Comet of 1997', a long-period comet with an exceptionally large, active nucleus that remained visible to the naked eye for a record 18 months.
The 'Great Comet of 1996', which passed very close to Earth and displayed one of the longest comet tails ever recorded.
The 'Great Comet of 2007', the brightest comet in decades, whose vast fanned dust tail was a spectacular sight from the Southern Hemisphere.
The brightest comet visible from the Northern Hemisphere since Hale–Bopp, a naked-eye spectacle in July 2020 discovered by the NEOWISE space telescope.
A long-period comet that made an exceptionally close pass of Mars in October 2014, observed up close by the fleet of Mars orbiters and rovers.
A long-period comet on a roughly 415-year orbit, the parent body of the Lyrid meteor shower seen each April.
Facts on this topic will be cited from these primary and reference sources.
Mission data, planetary science, space telescopes, and public-domain imagery.
Most NASA-produced imagery is in the public domain; individual items are checked for usage terms before publication.
Orbital data, ephemerides, and small-body parameters for planets, asteroids, and comets.