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Historical Comets and Their Appearances
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The Great Comet of 1577




Observations by Tycho Brahe disproved the Aristotelian idea of an unchanging celestial realm, showed comets were beyond Earth's atmosphere.




Comet West - 1976




Spectacularly bright comet with several tails, it broke into multiple pieces during its solar approach.




Biela's Comet - 1846




Observed to split into two separate fragments; its debris stream is associated with the Bielid meteor shower.




Comet Bennett - 1970




Provided a wealth of scientific data, including the identification of carbon chain molecules, which helped understand the chemistry of comets.




Comet Swift-Tuttle - 1992




The parent body of the Perseid meteor shower, it has a nucleus twice the size of the one that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.




Comet Kohoutek - 1973




Initially predicted to be extremely bright, it was considered a letdown due to its lower than expected luminosity, but it was scientifically valuable.




The Great Comet of 1811




Its appearance was thought to be a bad omen and sparked fear; inspired widespread public interest in comets.




Comet Donati - 1858




Known for its spectacular curved tail and brightness, it was the first comet to be photographed.




Comet Hale-Bopp - 1997




One of the most widely observed comets of the 20th century, extremely bright and visible to the naked eye for a record 18 months.




Halley's Comet - 1986




Confirmed periodic nature of comets, returned as predicted by Edmond Halley using Newtonian mechanics.




Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 - 1994




First comet observed to be fragmented and collided with Jupiter, providing direct observation of an extraterrestrial collision.




Comet Encke - Most recent perihelion in 2017




It has the shortest known orbital period of just over 3 years and the comet is believed to be the source of the Taurid meteor shower.




Comet Hyakutake - 1996




Passed extremely close to Earth, known for its distinct blue ion tail and fast apparent motion in the sky.




Comet Ikeya-Seki - 1965




One of the brightest comets seen in the last millennium, an example of a Kreutz Sungrazer.




Comet Borrelly - 2001




NASA's Deep Space 1 mission conducted the closest flyby of this comet, taking detailed pictures of the comet nucleus.
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