Overview
- A peer-reviewed study in The Astronomical Journal confirms that comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresák reversed its rotation, based on a reanalysis of 2017 data and new Hubble imaging.
- During its 2017 trip near the Sun, ground and space telescopes recorded a sharp slowdown in the comet’s spin by up to three times within weeks, followed by a switch to the opposite direction.
- Scientists tie the flip to jets of gas from warming ices that vent off the surface like small thrusters and push on the roughly 1‑kilometer nucleus.
- The team reports a long slide in the comet’s activity since earlier sightings, likely from volatile loss or an insulating dust layer, and warns that wild spin shifts could break the weak body apart.
- The comet is currently about 30 million kilometers from Earth and circles the Sun every 5.4 years, offering a rare testbed for tracking how small comets change over time.