Drawings of the comet of 1862, by the British clergyman and astronomer Thomas William Webb (1807-1885). The drawings show the appearance of the comet'

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Drawings of the comet of 1862, by the British clergyman and astronomer Thomas William Webb (1807-1885). The drawings show the appearance of the comet's nucleus and tail on various dates from 18th to 25th August of that year. Now known as Comet Swift-Tuttle, this comet was discovered independently in July 1862 by the US astronomers Lewis Swift and Horace Parnell Tuttle. This comet passes close to the Earth's orbit, and it is thought that one day this comet will hit the Earth. It is the parent body of the Perseid meteor shower.

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Size: 3715px × 4811px
Photo credit: © ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: 109p/swift-tuttle, 18, 22, 23, 25, 1737, 1800s, 1862, 18th, 1992, 19th, 22nd, 23rd, 25th, annotated, annotations, artwork, astronomical, astronomy, august, black--white, british, century, comet, cometary, drawing, english, historical, history, ii, iii, illustration, monochrome, n1, o1, observation, observations, research, s2, science, space, swift-tuttle, swift-tuttles, text, thomas, webb, william, xxviii