C / 905 K1

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
C / 905 K1 [i]
Properties of the orbit ( animation )
Epoch:  May 1st, 905 ( JD 2,051,724.5)
Orbit type parabolic
Numerical eccentricity 1.0
Perihelion 0.20 ± 0.2 AU
Inclination of the orbit plane 140 ± 15 °
Perihelion April 26, 905 ± 1 day
Orbital velocity in the perihelion 94 km / s
history
Explorer
Date of discovery May 18, 905
Older name 905
Source: Unless otherwise stated, the data comes from JPL Small-Body Database Browser . Please also note the note on comet articles .

C / 905 K1 is a comet that could be seen with the naked eye in 905 . It is counted among the " Great Comets " due to its extraordinary brightness .

Discovery and observation

The Chinese chronicles Táng Huì Yào from the 10th century and Xīn Táng Shū from the 11th century as well as a Japanese text from the 18th century provide very clear descriptions of this comet. Numerous European sources also at least mention the appearance of the comet.

The comet was discovered by the Chinese in the evening sky of May 18, 905, it is said to have resembled the planet Venus . Rays from the "broom star" are said to have emanated from 30 to 40 degrees in length. It stood in the northwest and was blood red in color. The next evening the color had already changed to that of "white silk". The chronicle al-Muntaẓam fī tārīḫi l-mulūk wa-l-umam by Ibn al-Ǧawziyy from Iraq in the 13th century also reports that “a star with a tail rose at the time of the evening prayer on the 10th Raǧab” (18 May) a and Ibn ʿIḏāriyy al-Marrākušiyy mentions in his Chronicle of Andalusia and the Maghreb al-Bayānu l-muġrib fī aḫbāri l-Andalus wa-l-Maġrib that “in Raǧab a comet appeared in the constellation Capricorn , not far in the north of the Great Bear . ”On May 21st, there was another independent discovery in Japan.

On May 22nd, the Chinese described a long tail that reached from the constellation Gemini to the Great Bear and was said to have a length of over 30 °. The Japanese reported that towards the end of the month the tail stretched over 300 ° “across the sky” to the southeast. Although the length specification either contains a typographical error or is a gross exaggeration, the expression "stretching across the sky" probably means a tail length of over 100 °.

Even though the Japanese also mentioned that the size of the comet had slowly decreased by June 6th and that it was last observed on June 8th, a "very intense" brightness was reported from China on June 12th, that the comet was now near the constellations Leo and Virgo and its tail still stretched across the sky. On this occasion, the comet was probably also seen for the last time in the evening sky, because in the following days the sky in China was overcast and when it cleared again on June 18, the comet had disappeared.

Only a few details are given in the European chronicles, as the German text Reginonis Chronicon from the 10th century reports on the appearance of a comet in May. The French text Annales Floriacenses from the 11th century also reports that on a Thursday in mid-May b a star was discovered in the north, which threw a large beam "like a long lance" to the southeast and remained visible for 23 days. The German text Annales Corbeienses from the 12th century reports that “a comet appeared on Pentecost”. Pentecost fell on May 19th in 905.

Two Byzantine chronicles from the 10th century mention that a comet appeared around the time of the birth of Emperor Constantine VII . In the Historias , Leon Diakonos reports , “a star of hair was seen in heaven at the time of his birth and death, harbingers of his birth and his farewell to life”. The Chronographia of Leon Grammatikos tells: "Then a bright comet appeared immediately, which threw its rays to the east and remained visible for 40 nights". Previously, Constantine was baptized on Epiphany (January 6), 905, so Pingré and Chambers assumed that these reports referred to a comet that appeared in late 904. According to recent research, Constantine was not born in early 905, but only in September 905 and was baptized a month or two later. Since no comet is reported in the Asian sources for the year 904, it is therefore likely that there are further descriptions of comet C / 905 K1.

The comet reached a magnitude of 0 mag around May 23rd .

aThe Hilāl (first visible crescent moon after the new moon) of the month Raǧab 292 AC was visible for the first time in Iraq and very clearly at sunset on May 8, 905. The 1st Raǧab fell there on May 9th. The 10th Raǧab then corresponds to May 18th and not May 19th (as it is wrongly stated in some sources).
bPingré interpreted the statement "Around the middle of May, on a Thursday" as May 16. Then the comet would have been discovered in Europe two days earlier than by the Chinese. The further information “you saw a star in the north, slightly inclined towards the west; it threw a large beam to the southeast “but, if one refers to Hasegawa's orbit calculation, does not fit the appearance of the comet on May 16, where it would only have been seen in the morning sky in the northeast, whereas the appearance of the comet in the evening sky of the 23rd May, about an hour or two after sunset, fits this description very well.

Superstition

While the historian Johannes Stumpf in his Schwytzer Chronica in the middle of the 16th century only lists the appearance of the comet in May 905 together with other occurrences from this and the following years, it is mentioned in a comet publication a good hundred years later with reference to these source for so presented as if the comet with the soon taking place Hungary invasions was connected and as a sign of the glare of Louis the blind , king of the Lombards , after its capture by I. Berengar was to interpret.

Orbit

Hasegawa was able to determine only a very uncertain parabolic orbit for the comet from 4 observations over 25 days , which is inclined by around 140 ° 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 through around April 26, 905, it would have been located at a distance of about 30 million km from the Sun within the orbit of Mercury . By April 22nd, it could have approached Venus up to about 75 million km, and by May 25th, it would have come close to Earth to about 0.20  AU / 30 million km. This close proximity to the earth could have been the reason for its observed brightness, and at this time the earth was also roughly in the plane of the comet's orbit, so that its dust tail could be seen impressively from the side.

Due to the uncertain initial data, no statement can be made as to whether and, if so, when the comet could return to the inner solar system .

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ E. Fagnan (ed.): Histoire de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne intitulée al-Bayano'l-mogrib. Tome I, Algiers 1901, p. 185 ( PDF; 15.8 MB ).
  2. ↑ J. Williams: Observations of Comets, from BC 611 to AD 1640. Strangeways and Walden, London 1871, pp. 52-53 ( PDF, 20.93 MB ).
  3. ^ NA Bear: Calculation of the Easter date. Retrieved July 13, 2016 .
  4. ^ AG Pingré: Cométographie ou Traité historique et théorique des comètes. Tome I. Imprimerie Royale, Paris 1783, pp. 352-353, 617-618 ( PDF; 56.49 MB ).
  5. ^ GW Kronk: Cometography - A Catalog of Comets, Volume 1. Ancient - 1799 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1999, ISBN 978-0-521-58504-0 , pp. 144-146.
  6. ↑ DK Yeomans: NASA JPL Solar System Dynamics: Great Comets in History. Retrieved July 8, 2016 .
  7. ↑ J. Stumpf: Schwytzer Chronica. Zurich 1554, doi: 10.3931 / e-rara-1907 , p. 76 ( PDF; 159.5 MB ).
  8. ↑ JJ Wagner: Mr. Ludwig Lavaters / LG Hiſtoriſche narration vaſt all of the comets / Which of the birth of the Rom: Keiſers Auguſti / and the gracious birth of our Lord and Savior Jeſu Chriſti on / until the 1556th year; worn together out of vilerley historians. Zurich 1681, doi: 10.3931 / e-rara-324 , p. 32 ( PDF; 26.85 MB ).
  9. ^ I. Hasegawa: Orbits of Ancient and Medieval Comets. In: Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan. Vol. 31, 1979, pp. 257-270 ( bibcode : 1979PASJ ... 31..257H ).
  10. ↑ C / 905 K1 in the Small-Body Database of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (English).Template: JPL Small-Body Database Browser / Maintenance / Alt
  11. ↑ A. Vitagliano: SOLEX 11.0. Archived from the original on September 18, 2015 ; accessed on May 2, 2014 .
  12. ^ DAJ Seargent: The Greatest Comets in History: Broom Stars and Celestial Scimitars. Springer, New York 2009, ISBN 978-0-387-09512-7 , pp. 87-88.