Map of the Universe
Halley's Comet
Comet · Periodic comet
About Halley's Comet
On 2026-01-01, the date the map shows, Halley's Comet was 35.1 AU from the Sun; sunlight takes 4.86 hours to reach it.
It goes round the Sun once every 75.5 years, at an average distance of 17.859 AU.
It is about 11 km across.
The map lists it as a comet and shows it in the Solar System part of the map, drawn on the plane of Earth’s orbit (the ecliptic).
Next perihelion 2061-07-28.
Key numbers
| Semi-major axis | 17.859 AU |
|---|---|
| Orbital period | 75.5 years |
| Eccentricity | 0.9680 |
| Inclination | 162.16° |
| Radius | 5.5 km |
| Distance from the Sun | 35.1 AU |
Where it is
Its place in the universe, from the inside out: Solar System › Orion–Cygnus Arm (Local Arm) › Milky Way › Local Group › Virgo Supercluster › Laniakea Supercluster › Observable universe.
Zoom out to see it in context: Neptune and the Kuiper belt, a view about 110 AU across.
From Wikipedia
Halley's Comet is the only known short-period comet that is consistently visible to the naked eye from Earth, appearing roughly every 74–79 years. It last appeared in the inner parts of the Solar System in 1986 and will next appear in mid-2061.
Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Halley's Comet, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.