Why is the comet called 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko?
Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is named after its discoverers, Klim Churyumov and Svetlana Gerasimenko, who ‘spotted’ the comet for the first time in 1969. The ‘P’ means it is a short-period comet, so its orbit around the Sun is well established and it takes less than 200 years to fulfil one revolution. The number 67 refers to Churyumov-Gerasimenko’s position in the list of catalogued periodic comets.
