46P/Wirtanen
46P/Wirtanen is a small short-period comet with a current orbital period of 5.4 years. It was the original target for close investigation by the Rosetta spacecraft, planned by the European Space Agency, but an inability to meet the launch window caused Rosetta to be sent to 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko instead. It belongs to the Jupiter family of comets, all of which have aphelia between 5 and 6 AU. Its diameter is estimated at . In December 2019, astronomers reported capturing an outburst of the comet in substantial detail by the TESS space telescope. Discovery 46P/Wirtanen was discovered photographically on January 17, 1948, by the American astronomer Carl A. Wirtanen. The plate was exposed on January 15 during a stellar proper motion survey for the Lick Observatory. Due to a limited number of initial observations, it took more than a year to recognize this object as a short-period comet. Perihelion passages The July 2013 perihelion passage was not favorable, only reaching a magnitude of 14.7. Between January 23 and September 26 of 2013, the comet had an elongation less than 20 degrees from the Sun. On 16 December 2018 the comet passed from Earth, marking one of the 10 closest comet flybys of