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 Night landscape with the great comet seen on a field inAlkmaar in January 1681 | |
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Gottfried Kirch |
| Discovery date | 14 November 1680 |
| Designations | |
| 1680 V1 | |
| Orbital characteristics | |
| Epoch | 1680-Nov-29.0 2335000.5(?) |
| Observation arc | 125 days |
| Number of observations | 30 |
| Aphelion | 890 au |
| Perihelion | 0.00622 au (1.34 R☉)[1][2] |
| Semi-major axis | 444au |
| Eccentricity | 0.999986[1][2] |
| Orbital period | ~10,400yr[3] |
| Inclination | 60.7° |
| Last perihelion | 18 December 1680[1][2] |
C/1680 V1, also called theGreat Comet of 1680,Kirch's Comet, andNewton's Comet, was the firstcomet discovered bytelescope. It was discovered byGottfried Kirch and was one of the brightest comets of the seventeenth century. It passed about235000 km from the surface of the Sun.[a]
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The comet was discovered byGottfried Kirch, a German astronomer, on 14 November 1680 (New Style), inCoburg, and it became one of the brightest comets of the seventeenth century – reputedly visible even in daytime – and was noted for its spectacularly long tail.[4] Passing 0.42au fromEarth on 30 November 1680,[5] it sped around an extremely closeperihelion of 0.0062 au (930,000 km; 580,000 mi; or just 1.34solar radii, 0.34 radii above the Sun's surface) on 18 December 1680, reaching its peak brightness on 29 December as it swung outward.[2][5] It was last observed on 19 March 1681.[1]JPL Horizons shows the comet has roughly a barycentricorbital period of 10,000 years.[3] As of 2023[update] the comet is about 259 au (39 billion km) from the Sun.[6]
While the Kirch Comet of 1680–1681 was discovered by – and subsequently named for – Gottfried Kirch, credit must also be given toEusebio Kino, the Spanish Jesuit priest who charted the comet's course. During his delayed departure for Mexico, Kino began his observations of the comet inCádiz in late 1680. Upon his arrival in Mexico City, he published hisExposición astronómica de el cometa (Astronomical Account of the Comet; Mexico City, 1681) in which he presented his findings. Kino'sExposición astronómica is among the earliest scientific treatises published by a European in the New World.[7]
Basil Ringrose was serving underbuccaneer CaptainBartholomew Sharpe and made the following observation shortly before raiding the Spanish port city ofCoquimbo, Chile:
Friday, November 19th, 1680. This morning about an hour before the day we observed a comet to appear a degree N. from the bright inLibra. The body thereof seemed dull, and its tail extended itself 18 or 20 degrees in length, being of a pale colour and pointing directly N.N.W. Our prisoners hereupon reported to us that the Spaniards had seen very strange sights, both at Lima, the capital city of Peru, Guayaquil, and other places, much about the time of our coming into the South Seas.[8]
Although it was undeniably asungrazing comet, it was probably not part of theKreutz family.[9]Isaac Newton used the comet to test and verifyKepler's laws.[10]John Flamsteed was the first to propose that the two bright comets of 1680–1681 were the same comet, one traveling inbound to the Sun and the other outbound, and Newton originally disputed this. Newton later changed his mind, and then, withEdmond Halley's help,purloined some of Flamsteed's data to verify this was the case without giving Flamsteed credit.[10]
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![The orbit of the comet of 1680, fit to a parabola, as shown in Isaac Newton's Principia[3]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aNewton_Comet1680.jpg)
Num Name ... q ... Tp ... C/1680 V1 (1680 V1) ... 0.00622200 ... 16801218.48760
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