65P/Gunn

65P/Gunn is a periodic comet in the Solar System which has a current orbital period of 6.79 years. The comet is a short-period comet, orbiting the Sun every 6.79 years inside the main asteroid belt between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter.

It was discovered on 11 October 1970 by Professor James E. Gunn of Princeton University using the 122-cm Schmidt telescope at the Palomar Observatory. It had a low brightness of magnitude 16 plus which improves to 12 under favourable conditions. In 1972 Elizabeth Roemer managed to observe 65P/Gunn close to aphelion.

On 4 February 1970 the comet passed 0.015 AU from Ceres.

In 1980 was noticed that a 19th magnitude comet found in plates obtained by Palomar Observatory on 8 August 1954 was a previous apparition of 65/Gunn. The link was confirmed by Brian G. Marsden.