About 88P/Howell
88P/Howell is a trash comet. It swings within 1.354 AU of the Sun at perihelion.
Roughly 4.4 km across.
Trash comet 14 EP
88P/Howell
Position computed live · sbdb
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Live ephemeris
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Score breakdown
· 2 badgesTrash 15 pts → Common
- Has a proper name +8
- Comet +6
Total score 14
1 more point to reach Common.
Badges
- Comet · +6
- Has a proper name · +8
Trivia
How we found it
- Named. Notable enough to have earned a proper name, not just a catalogue number.
Cosmic context
- Size. Roughly 4.4 km across.
- Tail. Its tail always points away from the Sun, never trailing behind its motion.
Properties
- diameter km
- 4.4
- eccentricity
- 0.5642
- inclination
- 4.38
- name
- 88P/Howell
- named
- yes
- orbit class
- JFc
- perihelion au
- 1.3536
- semi major au
- 3.106
How to see it
Like any astronomical target, 88P/Howell is best seen from a dark site away from city lights, and when it is above the horizon depends on your latitude and the time of year. Because it moves against the background stars, the live position panel on this page tracks where it is right now. The visibility panel above works out tonight's viewing window for your saved location.
Why 88P/Howell is a trash comet
88P/Howell scores 14 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 1 point would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 2 science badges — Comet and Has a proper name — each earned for a real, measurable property of the object. Rarity on Spacedle is never random: the more remarkable an object's astrophysics, the more badges it collects, the higher it scores, and the rarer it ranks.