Comet 46P/Wirtanen

Comet 46P/Wirtanen was discovered in 1948, and planned to be the exploration target of spacecraft Rosetta (which changed to 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko due to a preceding failure of Arian 5 rocket). Since 1948 46P passed two times near Jupiter, who changed 46Ps orbit to 5,46 years with a reduced perihelion of 1,06 AE.

Photographer: Martin Nischang