Comet Swift–Tuttle last passed perihelion in 1992 before the 2026 Perseid display.
Perihelion is the point in a comet’s orbit closest to the Sun. Swift–Tuttle returned to the inner Solar System in 1992, when it was rediscovered by Japanese amateur astronomer Tsuruhiko Kiuchi. That return followed its earlier 1862 apparition, when Lewis Swift and Horace Parnell Tuttle independently observed it.
The 2026 Perseids do not require the comet to be at perihelion. The shower comes from dust released during many previous passages and spread along the comet’s orbit. Earth encounters the stream every year, so meteor activity continues between cometary returns.
Swift–Tuttle’s orbit is roughly 133 years long, making its next expected perihelion passage far in the future. This long interval is one reason the Perseids are best understood as an annual debris-stream event rather than a yearly comet appearance. The 1992 return nevertheless helped astronomers refine the comet’s orbit and confirm its connection with the meteor shower.