C / 1264 N1

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C / 1264 N1 [i]
Artist's impression of the comet from 1858 [1]
Artist's impression of the comet
from 1858
Properties of the orbit ( animation )
Epoch:  July 27, 1264 ( JD 2,182,934.79)
Orbit type parabolic
Numerical eccentricity 1.0
Perihelion 0.825 AU
Inclination of the orbit plane 16 °
Perihelion July 20, 1264
Orbital velocity in the perihelion 46 km / s
history
Explorer
Date of discovery July 14, 1264 (?)
Older name 1264
Source: Unless otherwise stated, the data comes from JPL Small-Body Database Browser . Please also note the note on comet articles .

C / 1264 N1 was a comet that could be seen with the naked eye in 1264 . It is counted among the " Great Comets " due to its extraordinary brightness .

Discovery and Visibility

Almost all of the historians who wrote about the events of the 13th century mentioned the great and magnificent comet of 1264, and many of them were eyewitnesses to what they were reporting. The date of discovery of the comet is given differently by the chroniclers.

The monk Giles von Lessines reported that the comet was discovered in France on July 14th. He was certainly seen there on the evening of July 17th after sunset , as Thierry de Vaucouleurs wrote in a poem about the life of Pope Urban IV . Shortly afterwards it must have passed the sun , because Saxon chroniclers said the comet was seen on the morning of July 22nd, another source names the morning of July 26th.

According to various chronicles, the comet is said to have appeared large and bright in the northeast before sunrise , its long and wide tail was already visible over the horizon before the comet appeared after the morning star . The tail pointed "like the sail of a ship" across half the sky to the west. By the end of September, the comet migrated south so rapidly that it rose before the morning star, while the tail reached the western sky.

There are also different details about the duration of visibility. Pope Urban IV died on October 2nd, and besides Thierry, many other historians also mention that the comet was last seen on the night of the Pope's death.

The comet was also discovered in China on July 26th . The tail was curved and over 100 ° in length . Towards the end of September the tail began to fade, the comet was observed for 40 days (according to other information also 4 months).

The comet reached zero magnitude on July 29th .

Scientific evaluation

Eighteenth- century astronomers first tried to derive orbital elements for this comet from the observations, but they had only imprecise information available, so that the efforts of Edmond Halley and others only yielded rather uncertain results. Dunthorne and Pingré independently came to conclusions that suggested that comet C / 1556 D1 of 1556 might have been a return of comet of 1264. The comet would then have had an orbital period of about 292 years and a new return would have been expected in 1848. This theory was discussed controversially in wide circles at the time, but then in 1848 (and in the years before and after) no large comet appeared. Improved calculations in the 19th century showed more reliable orbital elements for the comets of 1264 and 1556, which also made an identity of both comets rather unlikely.

According to current knowledge, the two comets of 1264 and 1556 have no connection.

Orbit

For the comet, due to the few observations made, it was only possible to determine a parabolic orbit with limited precision , which is inclined by around 16 ° to the ecliptic . Its orbit is thus almost in the same plane as that of the planets . In such an orbit, several close encounters with the planets are to be expected, which can influence the orbit of the comet. At the point of the orbit closest to the sun ( perihelion ), which the comet passed around July 20, 1264, it was located at about 123 million km from the sun between the orbits of Venus and Earth . Around July 29th it came close to the earth to about 0.18 AU / 27 million km, which was the reason for its great brightness.

Around September 18, it approached Mars within about 58 million km. About eleven months later, a distance of 1.7 AU was relatively close to Jupiter .

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

  1. ^ The Illustrated London Almanack for 1858 . London, pp. 65-66.
  2. JR Hind: On the expected return of the great comet of 1264 and 1556 . London, 1848, pp. 11-19.
  3. ^ Donald K. Yeomans: NASA JPL Solar System Dynamics: Great Comets in History. Retrieved June 5, 2014 .
  4. ^ AG Pingré: Cométographie ou Traité historique et théorique des comètes . Tome I, Paris, 1783, pp. 406-411.
  5. A. Reslhuber: Report on the comet of the years 975, 1264 and 1556 . Kremsmünster, 1857. ( PDF; 1.0 MB ).
  6. ^ GW Kronk: Cometography - A Catalog of Comets, Volume 1. Ancient - 1799 . Cambridge University Press, 1999, ISBN 978-0-521-58504-0 , pp. 309-311.
  7. C / 1264 N1 in the Small-Body Database of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (English).Template: JPL Small-Body Database Browser / Maintenance / Alt
  8. SOLEX 11.0 A. Vitagliano. Archived from the original on September 18, 2015 ; accessed on May 2, 2014 .