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Historic Comet Close Approaches

HISTORIC COMET CLOSE APPROACHES PRIOR TO 2006
The following table shows close-Earth approachs by historic comets prior to 2006, sorted by close-approach distance from closest to farthest.

1 AU = ~150 million kilometers
1 LD = Lunar Distance = ~384,000 kilometers

Comet
Name
Designation Date of Close
Earth Approach
Miss
Distance
(AU)
Miss
Distance
(LD)
Note
Comet of 1491 C/1491 B1 1491-Feb-20.0 0.0094 3.7 *
Lexell D/1770 L1 1770-Jul-01.7 0.0151 5.9  
Tempel-Tuttle 5P/1366 U1 1366-Oct-26.4 0.0229 8.9  
IRAS-Araki-Alcock C/1983 H1 1983-May-11.5 0.0313 12.2  
Halley 1P/ 837 F1 837-Apr-10.5 0.0334 13.0  
Biela 3D/1805 V1 1805-Dec-09.9 0.0366 14.2  
Comet of 1743 C/1743 C1 1743-Feb-08.9 0.0390 15.2  
Pons-Winnecke 7P/ 1927-Jun-26.8 0.0394 15.3  
Comet of 1014 C/1014 C1 1014-Feb-24.9 0.0407 15.8 *
Comet of 1702 C/1702 H1 1702-Apr-20.2 0.0437 17.0  
Comet of 1132 C/1132 T1 1132-Oct-07.2 0.0447 17.4 *
Comet of 1351 C/1351 W1 1351-Nov-29.4 0.0479 18.6 *
Comet of 1345 C/1345 O1 1345-Jul-31.9 0.0485 18.9 *
Comet of 1499 C/1499 Q1 1499-Aug-17.1 0.0588 22.9 *
Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 3P/1930 J1 1930-May-31.7 0.0617 24.0  
Sugano-Saigusa-Fujikawa C/1983 J1 1983-Jun-12.8 0.0628 24.4  
Comet of 1080 C/1080 P1 1080-Aug-05.7 0.0641 24.9 *
Great comet C/1760 A1 1760-Jan-08.2 0.0681 26.5  
Comet of 1472 C/1471 Y1 1472-Jan-22.9 0.0690 26.9 *
Comet of 400 C/ 400 F1 400-Mar-31.1 0.0767 29.8 *
LINEAR P/2000 G1 1921-Mar-09.9 0.0775 30.1  
Comet of 1556 C/1556 D1 1556-Mar-13.0 0.0835 32.5 *
Schweizer C/1853 G1 1853-Apr-29.1 0.0839 32.7  
Bouvard-Herschel C/1797 P1 1797-Aug-16.5 0.0879 34.2  
Halley 1P/ 374 E1 374-Apr-01.9 0.0884 34.4  
Halley 1P/ 607 H1 607-Apr-19.2 0.0898 34.9  
Comet of 568 C/ 568 O1 568-Sep-25.7 0.0918 35.7 *
Messier C/1763 S1 1763-Sep-23.7 0.0934 36.3  
Tempel C/1864 N1 1864-Aug-08.4 0.0964 37.5  
Machholz 2-A 141P-A 1905-Jan-05.2 0.0968 37.7  
LINEAR P/2000 G1 2000-Mar-04.7 0.0974 37.9  
Schmidt C/1862 N1 1862-Jul-04.6 0.0982 38.2  
Comet of 390 C/ 390 Q1 390-Aug-18.9 0.1002 39.0 *
Hyakutake C/1996 B2 1996-Mar-25.3 0.1018 39.6  
Seki C/1961 T1 1961-Nov-15.2 0.1019 39.7  

* - Miss distance is uncertain because comet's orbit is relatively poorly determined.

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