86P/Wild

{{Short description|Periodic comet with 6 year orbit}}

{{Infobox comet

| name=86P/Wild

| image=

| discoverer=Paul Wild at Zimmerwald Observatory, Switzerland

| discovery_date=April 1980

| designations=

| epoch= 27 June 2015

| semimajor= 3.6043 AU

| perihelion= 2.2635 AU

| aphelion= 4.942 AU

| eccentricity= 0.3719

| period=6.84 yr

| inclination= 15.47°

| last_p=7 February 2022
3 April 2015{{cite web|url=http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/0086P/index.html|title= 86p/Wild 3| access-date= 14 April 2015}}

| next_p= 2029-Jan-23{{mpc|86p}}

}}

86P/Wild (pronounced 86P/Vilt) is a periodic comet in the Solar System with a current orbital period of 6.84 years. Its nucleus is estimated to have an effective radius of 0.37 ± 0.02 kilometers.{{cite journal |last1=Lamy |first1=P. L. |last2=Toth |first2=I. |last3=Weaver |first3=H. A. |last4=A'Hearn |first4=M. F. |last5=Jorda |first5=L. |title=Properties of the nuclei and comae of 10 ecliptic comets from Hubble Space Telescope multi-orbit observations★: HST observations of 10 ecliptic comets |journal=Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society |date=11 April 2011 |volume=412 |issue=3 |pages=1573–1590 |doi=10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.17934.x|doi-access=free }}

It was discovered on photographic plates exposed on 11/12 April 1980 by Paul Wild of the Astronomical Institute of University of Bern, Switzerland at the nearby Zimmerwald Observatory. He reported the brightness at a magnitude of 15.5 and that the comet was diffuse. He rediscovered it on 7 May 1980 and calculations by Brian G. Marsden estimated that perihelion would take place on 6 October 1980.

Syuichi Nakano calculated the next perihelion would be 31 August 1987 and the comet was duly observed by Tom Gehrels and J. V. Scotti on the Spacewatch telescope at Kitt Peak Observatory, Arizona, USA. Perihelion was 1 September.

The same team re-observed it in 1994 with a faint brightness of magnitude 21. It has since been observed in 2001, 2008 and 2015.