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Comets and interstellar visitors
Comets are dirty snowballs from the earliest days of the Solar System. Close to the Sun they grow a tail. Then there are rare guests that come from the space between the stars and never return.
Comets
Comet HalleyHalley returns about every 76 years – next time in July 2061.
Comet Hale-BoppIn 1996/97 Hale-Bopp was visible to the naked eye for a record 18 months – the “Great Comet” of the 1990s.
67P/Churyumov-GerasimenkoIn 2014 Philae landed on this comet – the first time ever that a probe had landed on a comet.
Comet EnckeAt 3.3 years, Encke has the shortest orbital period of all known bright comets.Interstellar visitors
ʻOumuamuaʻOumuamua is the first object proven to have come to us from another star – discovered on 19 October 2017 in …2I/BorisovThe second known visitor from another star – and the first that looked like a proper comet, with a coma and a …3I/ATLASThe third known interstellar visitor, discovered on 1 July 2025 by the ATLAS telescope network in Chile.
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