19P/Borrelly
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Comet Borrelly (formally designated 19P/Borrelly) is a periodic comet, which was visited by the space craft Deep Space 1.
Comet parameters
| Diameter: | 8 by 4 km |
| Orbital period: | 6.8 years |
| Orbital eccentricity: | 0.624 |
| Orbital inclination: | 30.3 degrees |
| Discovered: | 1904 |
Discovery
The comet was discovered by Alphonse Louis Nicolas Borrelly during a routine search for comets at Marseilles, France on December 28, 1904.
Deep Space 1 flyby
On September 21, 2001 the spacecraft Deep Space 1, which was launched to test new equipment in space, performed a fly-by of Borrelly. It was steered toward the comet during the extended mission of the craft, and presented an unexpected bonus for the mission scientists. Despite the failure of a system that helped determine its orientation, Deep Space 1 managed to send back to Earth what were, at the time, the best images and other science data from a comet.