Comet of 1652. Illustration from Cometographia (1668), by the Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius, showing the comet of 1652. The comet was in Orion w

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Comet of 1652. Illustration from Cometographia (1668), by the Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius, showing the comet of 1652. The comet was in Orion when Hevelius first observed it on 20th December. He described the nucleus as being round and of small luminosity. Helvelius last observed this comet on 10th January 1653. Comets are bodies of rock and ice that orbit the Sun on elongated orbits lasting hundreds or thousands of years. When they pass into the inner solar system, the Sun heats them up and the ice melts, creating long tails of ice and dust that glow in the light from the Sun.

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Size: 3706px × 4735px
Photo credit: © LIBRARY OF CONGRESS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: 1600s, 1652, 1668, 17th, arcturus, artwork, astronomical, astronomy, century, comet, cometary, cometographia, comets, hevelius, historical, history, illustration, johannes, path, polish, position, research, science, tail, text, trajectory