Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Comet 96P/Machholz or 96P/Machholz 1 is a short-period comet discovered on May 12, 1986 by amateur astronomer Donald Machholz in Loma Prieta, California. Comet 96P/Machholz will next come to perihelion on July 14, 2012. Machholz 1 is unusual among comets in several respects. Its highly eccentric 5.2 year orbit has the smallest perihelion distance known among regular short-period comets, bringing it considerably closer to the Sun than the orbit of Mercury.