| Comet Encke | |
|---|---|
 2P/Encke in Celestia | |
| Discovered by | Pierre Méchain
Johann Franz Encke (recognition of periodicity) |
| Date of Discovery | 17 January 1786 |
Comet Encke or Encke's Comet (official designation: 2P/Encke) is a periodic comet that completes an orbit of the Sun once every 3.3 years. (This is the shortest period of a reasonably bright comet; the faint main-belt comet 311P/PANSTARRS has a period of 3.2 years.) Encke was first recorded by Pierre Méchain in 1786, but it was not recognized as a periodic comet until 1819 when its orbit was computed by Johann Franz Encke; like Halley's Comet, it is unusual in being named after the calculator of its orbit rather than its discoverer. Like most comets, it has a very low albedo, reflecting only 4.6% of the light it receives. The diameter of the nucleus of Encke's Comet is 4.8 km.