Comet

Perihelion: 1858 September 30.46, q = 0.578 AU  Among the many individuals who made important contributions to astronomy during the mid-19th Century was the Italian astronomer Giovanni Donati, who observed from the Observatory of Florence and who was Director of that institution from 1864 until his death (at age 46) in 1873. He made the …

Perihelion: 1882 September 17.72, q = 0.008 AU  What can arguably be considered as one of the brightest and most spectacular comets of the entire 2nd Millennium was a Kreutz sungrazer, one of the most pre-eminent representatives of that class of objects that is the subject of a future “Special Topics” presentation. It was first …

Perihelion: 1914 October 26.77, q = 1.104 AU  After the spectacular appearances of the Daylight Comet of 1910 and of Comet 1P/Halley later that same year – both of these objects having been discussed in previous “Ice and Stone 2020” presentations – the next few years brought some additional bright comets to Earth’s nighttime skies. …

Perihelion: 1985 September 5.21, q = 1.028 AU  The last comet discovered in the 19th Century was found on December 20, 1900, by the French astronomer Michel Giacobini from Nice Observatory, the fifth of twelve comets he discovered between 1896 and 1907. The comet was around 10th magnitude and was followed for two months, with …

Perihelion: 2019 August 8.55, q = 2.007 AU  According to our present understanding of how the solar system formed and evolved, all the various comets, including those passing through the inner solar system as well as those in the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud, are the “leftovers” from the planet formation process. Over the …

Perihelion: 1979 August 30.95, q = 0.005 AU  The very first comet I ever observed, Comet Tago-Sato-Kosaka 1969g – a previous “Comet of the Week” – was also the first comet ever to be observed from space, an event which took place in mid-January 1970. Since that time many, many comets have been observed by …