68P/Klemola

{{Short description|Periodic comet with 11 year orbit}}

{{Infobox comet

| name=68P/Klemola

| image= 68P 2019-08-23 NEOWISE image 3-color.png

| discoverer={{Interlanguage link|Arnold Richard Klemola|de|3=Arnold R. Klemola|vertical-align=sup}}

| discovery_date=November 1965

| designations=1965j 1965 VI, 1976j, 1976 X, 1987th, 1987th XIV

| epoch=

| semimajor=4.896 AU

| perihelion=1.755 AU{{citation |title=Comets: nature, dynamics, origin, and their cosmogonical relevance |publisher=Springer Science + Business Media |year=2005 |isbn=1-4020-3490-3 |first=Julio Angel |last=Fernández |page=344 }}

| aphelion=8.032 AU

| eccentricity=0.6407

| period=10.82 a{{citation |title=Handbook of space astronomy and astrophysics |first=Martin V. |last=Zombeck |page=61 |edition=3rd |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-521-78242-5 }}

| inclination=11.1°

| last_p=November 9, 2019{{cite web

|date=January 15, 2010

|title=Note number : 0023 P/Klemola : 68P

|publisher=Institut de mécanique céleste et de calcul des éphémérides

|author=Patrick Rocher

|url=http://www.imcce.fr/en/ephemerides/donnees/comets/FICH/CIF0023.php

|access-date=2012-02-19}}
January 20, 2009

| next_p=2030-Nov-04

}}

68P/Klemola or Klemola's Comet is a periodic comet, which belongs to Jupiter's comet family, that was discovered in 1965 by American astronomer {{Interlanguage link|Arnold Richard Klemola|de|3=Arnold R. Klemola|vertical-align=sup}} in Argentinian Yale-Columbia Southern Station. Its orbital period is 10.82 years.

It was observed at the next predicted apparition by Gérard Sause at the Observatoire de Haute Provence, France on 6 August 1976 with a brightness of magnitude 12. It was successfully observed in 1987 when J. Gibson of the Palomar Observatory, California, obtained images with the 1.5-meter reflector on 16 February. It appeared essentially stellar, with a faint magnitude of 19. It was observed again on 29 March 1997 by Carl W. Hergenrother at the F. L. Whipple Observatory, with perihelion on 1 May 1998.

68P came to opposition on 14 June 2019 and perihelion on November 9, 2019.