C / 1665 F1
| C / 1665 F1 [i] | |
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The comet from 1665 in the constellation Pegasus
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| Properties of the orbit ( animation ) | |
| Orbit type | parabolic |
| Numerical eccentricity | 1.0 |
| Perihelion | 0.106 AU |
| Inclination of the orbit plane | 103.9 ° |
| Perihelion | April 24, 1665 |
| Orbital velocity in the perihelion | 129 km / s |
| history | |
| Explorer | |
| Date of discovery | March 27, 1665 |
| Older name | 1665 |
| Source: Unless otherwise stated, the data comes from JPL Small-Body Database Browser . Please also note the note on comet articles . | |
C / 1665 F1 was a comet that could be seen with the naked eye in 1665 . Due to its extraordinary brightness, it is counted among the " Great Comets ".
It was the subject of the comet fear typical of the time , but also of many precise observations that contributed to the later understanding of the phenomenon and its orbit.
Discovery and observation
This comet has been observed all over Europe, it may have been discovered on March 27th, as reported by Johannes Hevelius , who observed it himself with great care from April 6th to 20th in Gdansk . On April 6th, in the second half of the night, until dawn he could see him with a 17 ° long tail . The following year he published a detailed description of his movement in the sky, which can also be found in the second volume of his Machina coelestis .
Chinese observers reported that "an extraordinary star" was first seen on March 28th. On April 13th, a tail 7 ° long had developed. The comet has also been reported in Korea and Japan.
The French Jesuit François-Joseph Le Mercier first saw the comet on the morning of March 29th in Québec and was able to observe it until April 17th.
Adrien Auzout and Pierre Petit observed the comet in Paris and after a few observations were able to set up an ephemeris for the remaining observation time. Isaac Newton saw the comet in London for four days from April 11th . After passing the sun, the comet could no longer be observed from the northern hemisphere .
The comet reached a magnitude of −1 mag on April 20th .
Superstition
As was customary at the time, this comet was also seen in a flood of writings as an ominous harbinger of various misfortunes and as a warning and "rod of anger" sent by God. Amazingly, one can find astronomically precise representations of the comet's orbit as well as superstitious and fearful predictions right next to each other in these writings . The Emperor was sent at the appearance of the comet an astrological prediction, floods, storms, earthquakes, destruction of lordships, castles and cities, solar and lunar eclipses, war prophesied so, and the emperor advised to "strong for a well-built palace or to move around a residence, situated in a dark valley and surrounded by mountains, and stay there for 20 days ”.
In retrospect, this comet was held responsible, among other things, for the Great Plague of London that broke out in the year it appeared and the Great Fire the following year.
Scientific evaluation
In the middle of the 17th century, the most diverse views on nature and, above all, on the orbits of comets were still in lively discussion. Even well-known astronomers such as Kepler , Galilei , Cassini and others had only vague or, from today's perspective, absurd ideas on this topic. However, the appearance of comets in 1664 and 1665 made further advances in understanding the phenomenon. In particular, the assumption that comets are not ephemeral natural phenomena of earthly origin and that they do not run on straight, but curved paths like the planets, and thus the possibility of return exists.
Early attempts by Ward , Petit, Auzout, Cassini and Hevelius to describe or even calculate such cometary orbits often yielded incorrect results (e.g. no explanation for retrograde motion ), which was attributed to the inaccuracy of the measuring instruments used The cause, however, was the geocentric view of the world, which was still partially assumed . Several decades would pass before Dörffel and Newton were able to truly understand the movement of comets . The orbital elements of the comet were not determined until 1705 by Edmond Halley from the observations of Hevelius.
Orbit
For the comet, due to the limited number of observations, only a parabolic orbit with limited precision could be determined, which is inclined by around 104 ° to the ecliptic . It thus runs in the opposite direction (retrograde) like the planets through its orbit. At the point of the orbit closest to the sun ( perihelion ), which the comet passed around April 24, 1665, it was almost four times closer to the sun than Mercury at a distance of 15.9 million km from the sun . By April 4, it had already come close to Earth to about 0.57 AU / 85 million km, and by April 18, it was approaching Venus to about 96 million km.
The comet is unlikely to return to the inner solar system , or will return many tens or hundreds of thousands of years .
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Donald K. Yeomans: Comets - A Chronological History of Observation, Science, Myth, and Folklore . Wiley, New York, 1991, ISBN 978-0-471-61011-3 .
- ↑ a b A. G. Pingré: Cométographie ou Traité historique et théorique des comètes . Tome II, Paris, 1784, p. 22.
- ^ GW Kronk: Cometography - A Catalog of Comets, Volume 1. Ancient - 1799 . Cambridge University Press, 1999, ISBN 978-0-521-58504-0 , pp. 357-360.
- ^ Donald K. Yeomans: NASA JPL Solar System Dynamics: Great Comets in History. Retrieved June 17, 2014 .
- ↑ Sigismund Trew: sign off Meanwhile allhie to Altdorff / in this 1665 years / in aquario and piscibus published comet / ... . Nuremberg, 1665. ( JPG; 635 kB )
- ↑ Franz v. P. Gruithuisen: About the nature of comets ... . Munich, 1811, pp. 286-288.
- ^ Seymour L. Chapin: Early Ideas about Comets 1650-1700 . In: Astronomical Society of the Pacific Leaflets , Vol. 6, No. 278, 1952, pp. 221-228. ( bibcode : 1952ASPL .... 6..221C )
- ↑ C / 1665 F1 in the Small-Body Database of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (English).
- ↑ SOLEX 11.0 A. Vitagliano. Archived from the original on September 18, 2015 ; accessed on May 2, 2014 .