56P/Slaughter–Burnham is a Jupiter-family comet with an 11.54-year orbit around the Sun. It is the second of two comets co-discovered by Robert Burnham Jr. and Charles D. Slaughter.
Observational history It was discovered in 1959 by Charles D. Slaughter and Robert Burnham of the Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona during a photographic survey. They spotted the comet, with a faint brightness of magnitude 16, on a plate exposed on 10 December 1958. By monitoring its movement over a series of consecutive days, Elizabeth Roemer was able to calculate its orbit, suggesting a perihelion date of 4 August 1958 and an orbital period of 11.18 years.
It was subsequently observed in 1970, 1981, 1993, 2005 and 2016. Its next perihelion will be on 19 December 2027.
Physical characteristics The nucleus of the comet has a radius of based on observations by the Keck Observatory. Follow-up observations from the 2.5-m Isaac Newton Telescope revealed a much larger nucleus at in radius.
Notes
References
External links
at the Minor Planet Center database 56P/Slaughter–Burnham at Seiichi Yoshida's website