Where is Halley’s Comet now? Its live position, and when it returns in 2061
Halley’s Comet is the one comet most people can name, back roughly once in a lifetime. Between visits it does not vanish: it is far out beyond Neptune, slowly turning back towards the Sun. Here is where it is right now, computed live from its orbit, and when it will next be seen.
Live position, 1 Oct 2026, 12:05 UTC
Halley’s Comet is 34.95 AU (5.23 billion km) from the Sun right now, beyond the orbit of Neptune, and falling back towards the Sun at 1.01 km/s after turning round at the far end of its orbit in late 2023. Its next perihelion — closest approach to the Sun — is on 28 Jul 2061, in 34 years and 9 months.
- From the Sun
- 34.95 AU5.23 billion km
- From Earth
- 35.40 AUlight takes 4.9 hours
- Speed
- 1.01 km/sabout 55 km/s at perihelion
- Heading
- inbound, towards the Sun
- Through its orbit
- 54%of the time from 1986 to 2061
- Next perihelion
- 28 Jul 2061in 34 years and 9 months (12,719 days)
When will Halley’s Comet return?
Its next perihelion — the moment it swings closest to the Sun, about 0.59 AU out, inside the orbit of Venus — is on 28 July 2061 (28 Jul 2061 — in 34 years and 9 months). The comet brightens as it falls inwards and the Sun’s heat boils ice off its nucleus into a coma and tails, so it should be a naked-eye object for some weeks either side.
The 2061 return should be a better show than the last one. In 1986 Halley rounded the Sun on the far side from Earth, about 1.5 AU away from us, and was a faint, low smudge for most observers. In 2061 it will be on our side of the Sun: this orrery’s model puts it about 0.48 AU (72 million km) from Earth on 29 July 2061, although still only about 20° from the Sun, so it will be best seen low in the twilight. See the 2061 pass in the orrery.
Its orbit
Halley travels a long, thin ellipse: from 0.59 AU from the Sun at perihelion to about 35 AU at aphelion, beyond Neptune, which it last reached in late 2023. Its speed ranges from about 55 km/s as it whips round the Sun to about 1 km/s at the far end. The orbit is tilted 162° to the planets’, so Halley goes round the Sun the opposite way — a retrograde orbit — which is why the comet and Earth meet head-on and its meteors strike the atmosphere so fast. A full circuit takes 74 to 79 years, about 76 on average; the pull of the giant planets changes it slightly each time.
Famous returns
| Perihelion | What happened |
|---|---|
| The next return, on Earth’s side of the Sun. See it in the orrery | |
| A poor view from Earth, but the first close-up: five spacecraft, the “Halley Armada”, flew past, and ESA’s Giotto photographed the nucleus from about 600 km on 14 March 1986. See it in the orrery | |
| The first return to be photographed. Earth passed through the comet’s tail in May, and some sellers did a trade in “comet pills”. Mark Twain, born just after the 1835 perihelion, had predicted he would “go out with it” — and died the day after this one. | |
| Mark Twain was born two weeks later, on 30 November. | |
| The first predicted return. Edmond Halley had worked out in 1705 that the comets of 1531, 1607 and 1682 were one object due back in 1758; it was recovered on Christmas Day 1758, sixteen years after his death, and named after him. | |
| The apparition Halley observed himself. | |
| Seen in April, months before the Norman conquest of England, and stitched into the Bayeux Tapestry as an omen. | |
| Its closest recorded approach to Earth: about 0.03 AU (5 million km) in April 837. | |
| 240 BC | The earliest certain record, in Chinese chronicles. |
The orrery’s position for the comet is accurate near the 1986 and 2061 returns and approximate in between; further back in time it drifts, because the real period has varied from one return to the next.
See pieces of Halley every year
Each pass leaves a trail of dust along Halley’s orbit, and Earth crosses that trail twice a year. The grains burn up as meteors in two annual showers:
- Eta Aquariids, peaking around 5–6 May: best in the hours before dawn, and best from the southern hemisphere and the tropics.
- Orionids, peaking around 21 October: up to about 20 meteors an hour from a dark site after midnight, radiating from near Orion’s raised club.
Because Halley’s orbit runs backwards, its debris hits the atmosphere at around 66 km/s — among the fastest meteors there are.
How big is Halley’s Comet?
The solid nucleus that Giotto photographed is a lumpy, peanut-shaped body about 15 km long and 8 km wide, darker than coal — it reflects only about 4% of the sunlight that hits it. Near the Sun its coma of gas and dust swells to hundreds of thousands of kilometres and its tails stretch for tens of millions. Far from the Sun, as now, it is just that dark nucleus: when ESO’s Very Large Telescope last photographed it in 2003, 28 AU out, it was about magnitude 28, billions of times fainter than the faintest star you can see.
Follow Halley’s Comet in the 3D orrery
Questions
Where is Halley’s Comet now?
About 35 AU (5.2 billion km) from the Sun, beyond the orbit of Neptune. It reached the far end of its orbit, aphelion, in late 2023 and is now falling slowly back towards the Sun at about 1 km/s. The live figures at the top of this page update every minute.
When will Halley’s Comet return?
Its next perihelion is on 28 July 2061, and it should be visible to the naked eye for some weeks around then. Unlike in 1986, when it rounded the Sun on the far side from Earth, in 2061 it will be on our side, passing about 0.48 AU (72 million km) from Earth at the end of July, although low in the twilight sky.
When was Halley’s Comet last seen?
It last passed the Sun on 9 February 1986 and was a modest naked-eye sight in early 1986, best from the southern hemisphere in March and April. Spacecraft visited it that March. It was last photographed in 2003 by ESO’s Very Large Telescope, 28 AU from the Sun and about magnitude 28.
How often does Halley’s Comet come back?
Every 74 to 79 years, about 76 years on average. The interval varies because the pull of Jupiter, Saturn and the other planets changes its orbit slightly on each pass; 1986 to 2061 is 75.5 years.
Can I see Halley’s Comet before 2061?
Not the comet itself, but you can see pieces of it: the Eta Aquariid meteors around 5–6 May and the Orionids around 21 October are both dust from Halley.
How do you pronounce Halley’s Comet?
Most astronomers say HAL-ee, rhyming with valley. HAY-lee is also heard, and nobody knows for certain how Edmond Halley said his own name.
Sources
- Halley’s Comet — Wikipedia (returns, orbit, nucleus, 2061 return).
- 1P/Halley — NASA Science.
- Giotto — Wikipedia (the 1986 flyby).
- Orionids and Eta Aquariids — Wikipedia (the meteor showers).
- The live position, speed and 2061 geometry come from this site’s own model: Halley’s orbital elements with the period pinned to JPL’s 1986–2061 perihelion interval, the same as in the 3D orrery.