36P/Whipple

{{Short description|Periodic comet with 8 year orbit}}

{{Infobox comet

| name=36P/Whipple

| image= 36P 2020-11-21 image ZTF-sso-455-zg-size-6.4arcmin.png

| discoverer=Fred Lawrence Whipple

| discovery_date=October 15, 1933

| designations=1926 VIII; 1933 IV; 1941 III;
1948 VI; 1955 VIII; 1963 II;
1970 XIV; 1978 VIII; 1986 XII;
1994 XXXII

| epoch=March 6, 2006

| semimajor=4.165 AU

| perihelion=3.089 AU

| aphelion=5.241 AU

| eccentricity=0.2583

| period=8.501 a

| inclination= 9.9345°

| last_p=May 31, 2020{{mpc|36p}}
December 30, 2011
July 6, 2003

| next_p=2028-Nov-04

}}

36P/Whipple is a periodic comet in the Solar System. It is the lowest numbered Quasi-Hilda comet.{{cite journal | title=The quasi-Hilda subgroup of ecliptic comets - an update | last=Toth | first=I. | journal=Astronomy and Astrophysics | volume=448 | issue=3 | pages=1191–1196 | doi=10.1051/0004-6361:20053492 | bibcode=2006A&A...448.1191T |date=March 2006| doi-access=free }} It passed {{Convert|0.25|AU|e6km|abbr=unit|lk=on}} from Jupiter in June 1922.

The comet nucleus is estimated to be 4.5 kilometers in diameter{{cite web

|type= 2022-03-06 last obs

|title=JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 36P/Whipple

|url=https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html#/?sstr=36P&view=OPC

|publisher=Jet Propulsion Laboratory

|access-date=2010-02-26}} or 5.1 kilometers. The rotational period was estimated to be about 40 hours.{{cite journal |last1=Snodgrass |first1=C. |last2=Lowry |first2=S. C. |last3=Fitzsimmons |first3=A. |title=Optical observations of 23 distant Jupiter Family Comets, including 36P/Whipple at multiple phase angles |journal=Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society |date=April 2008 |volume=385 |issue=2 |pages=737–756 |doi=10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.12900.x|doi-access=free |arxiv=0712.4204 |bibcode=2008MNRAS.385..737S }}