Discovery of 7P/Pons–Winnecke

Comet 7P/Pons–Winnecke is a periodic comet of the Jupiter family, which takes about six and a half years to orbit the Sun. It was discovered by the French astronomer Jean-Louis Pons, who found many comets during his career as an observer, and was seen again in the middle of the nineteenth century by the German astronomer Friedrich Winnecke, who recognized it as the same object and calculated its orbit, so that both names are attached to it. It makes relatively close passes to Earth, and its orbit is strongly influenced by Jupiter, so that it has approached the planet at times. It is a modest comet, usually visible only with a telescope.

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