Wikipedia

C/1618 W1

C/1618 W1 is a comet that was visible to the naked eye in 1618 and 1619. It is classified as a "Great Comet" due to its extraordinary brightness and its long tail, measuring up to 90° long.

C/1618 W1
The Great Comet of 1618 over Augsburg, Germany
Discovery
Discovery date25 November 1618
Designations
Great Comet of 1618
1618 II
Orbital characteristics[1]
Epoch8 November 1618 (JD 2312334.351)
Observation arc53 days
Number of
observations		42
Perihelion0.38954 AU
Eccentricity~1.000
Max. orbital speed~67 km/s
Inclination37.196°
81.001°
Argument of
periapsis		287.436°
Last perihelion8 November 1618
Physical characteristics
0–1[2]
(1618 apparition)

It was the first comet to be observed with telescopes (along with two smaller ones in the same year). While leading scientists at the time made precise observations, others discussed at a colloquium whether these comets were divine signs because of the war that had just broken out across Europe, or purely natural phenomena.

Discovery and observation

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The Great Comet of 1618 over Heidelberg, Germany

Three comets were visible in the naked eye in 1618.[3][4] The brightest of these is probably the one first observed in November 25.[1] Two Chinese texts reported the sighting of the comet on the morning of November 26, with its tail measuring 10° long across the sky, pointed to the southeast.

It is possible that the comet was discovered earlier in Persia, where the Spanish ambassador García de Silva y Figueroa had seen it in Isfahan a day or two earlier. However, his reports are inaccurate in this regard. He described it as diffuse and of the color and brightness of Venus in the eastern sky. Sightings were also made in Korea, the Moluccas, and the Philippines.[5]

The comet reached a brightness of 0–1 mag on November 29.[2] In Europe, the comet was observed by many astronomers from the end of November. Johannes Kepler saw it in Linz on the morning of November 29th and was able to measure its orbit until January 7th.[6] The Swiss Jesuit Johann Baptist Cysat observed the comet from Ingolstadt from December 1st.[7] On December 9th, he reported a tail length of 70°. In England, the astronomer John Bainbridge observed it from November 28th to December 26th and drew maps showing the comet's position in the sky.[8] From his observations, he concluded that the comet was ten times further away from the Earth than the Moon.

Longomontanus, a student of Tycho Brahe, reported the comet's tail stretching 104° across the sky on December 10th[9] while the Jesuit Orazio Grassi estimated a tail length of about 60° on December 12 in Rome.[10] Other astronomers, such as Pierre Gassendi, Wilhelm Schickard, and Willebrord Snellius also made observations of the comet.[11]

The comet could be observed in China until January 4, 1619. Its last sighting was by Cysat on the morning of January 22 with a telescope.[12][13][14]

Superstition

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The Great Comet being depicted as the harbinger of war and death in a Dutch pamphlet (1619)

As was common at the time, this comet was also seen in a flood of writings as an ominous harbinger of various misfortunes and as a warning and "rod of wrath" sent by God.[15] One Thuringian chronicle stated:[16]

On November 3, 1618, a terrible comet appeared in the sky, which was visible for the next month and even into the following year; for after it war, rebellion, bloodshed, pestilence , famine and unspeakable misfortune followed all over the world. No terrible comet is seen that does not bring great misfortune with it...

— Volkmar Happe, "Part I, f. 24v", Chronicon Thuringiae (1619)

In retrospect, by 1630 the comet was seen as a harbinger of the Thirty Years' War.[17] In addition, the near-consecutive deaths of Archduke Maximilian III, Pope Paul V, and King Philip III of Spain were speculated to have been "announced" by the comet's 1618 appearance as well.[18]

Scientific evaluation

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The Great Comet of 1618 over the Netherlands

The comets of 1618 were the first to be observed with such instruments after the invention of the telescope. In addition to more precise observation of their appearance, this also enabled much more precise measurement of their positions in the sky, which would later facilitate the calculation of orbital elements.

Johannes Kepler published his findings on the three comets in his 1619 book, De Cometis libelli tres[19], which he built on the previous study by Tycho Brahe and Michael Mästlin, where the two astronomers had successfully measured the parallax of the Great Comet of 1577 about 41 years prior. They were thus able to prove that comets were not structures in the Earth's atmosphere, but are real celestial bodies that moved in elliptical orbits around the Sun.[6] Kepler defended his assumption of rectilinear cometary motion. Like his predecessors, he attributed the formation of comets to condensations in the now-discredited concept of luminiferous ether.

Ulm comet dispute of 1619

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In 1619, a dispute broke out in Ulm, Germany between theologians and natural scientists (led by Johann Faulhaber and Michael Maestlin) which concerned the question of whether the comets that appeared in the sky of 1618 were signs sent by God as punishment for the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War, or just simply natural phenomena with no influence on historical events. A colloquium was then held on October 18th to clarify these issues, of which several scientists (including Rene Descartes) participated.[20]

Controversy between Galileo and Orazio Grassi (1619–1623)

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See also: The Assayer and Discourse on Comets

Orbit

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A celestial map from 1618, showing the Comet's position superimposed on the constellation Boötes

From 42 observations over 53 days, Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel was able to determine a rough parabolic orbit for the comet, which is inclined by 37° to the ecliptic,[1] thus its orbit is inclined to the orbital planes of the planets. By October 19, it had already come as close as about 61 million km (0.41 AU) to Venus, and by October 30, it had approached Jupiter to within about 4.67 AU. The comet reached perihelion on November 8, 1618, which is about 58.3 million km (36.2 million mi) from the Sun. On December 6, it passed the Earth at a distance of about 54 million km (0.36 AU). There were no other notable approaches with the other planets.[21]

Due to the uncertainty of the initial orbital data, it is not known whether the comet could return to the inner Solar System sometime in the future or it was ejected towards interstellar space.

In Literature

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The Comet as depicted in the Aenmerckinge (1619) by Adriaen van de Venne[15]

The Great Comet of 1618 had also sparked wild speculation in England about its possible ill-fated significance. Some saw it as divine disapproval of King James I's efforts to form a marriage alliance with Spain. The English king was concerned about the political implications of this speculation and wrote a poem alluding to the people's credulity:[6][22]

You men of Britaine, wherefore gaze yee so
Uppon an Angry starr, whenh as yee know
The sun shall turne to darknesse, the Moon to blood
And then twill be to late for to turne good
O be so happy then while time doth last
As to remember Dooms day is not past
And misinterpret not, with vaine Conceit
The Caracter you see on Heaven gate.
Which though it bring the world some news from fate
The letters such as no man can translate
And for to guesse at God Almightys minde
Where such a thing might Cozen all mankinde
Wherfore I wish the Curious man to keep
His rash Imaginations till he sleepe
Then let him dreame of Famine plague & war
And thinke the match with spaine hath causd this star
Or let them thinke that if their Prince my Minion
Will shortly chang, or which is worse religion
And that he may have nothing elce to feare
Let him walke Pauls, and meet the Devills there
And if he be a Puritan, and scapes
Jesuites, salute them in their proper shapes
These Jealousys I would not have a Treason
In him whose Fancy overrules his Reason
Yet to be sure It did no harme, Twere fit
He would be bold to pray for no more witt
But onely to Conceale his dreame, for there
Be those that will beleive what he dares feare

— King James I, "On the Blazeing Starr", Of Prophecy and Portent (c. 1618–1623)

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c "C/1618 W1 – JPL Small-Body Database Browser". ssd.jpl.nasa.gov. Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 2 November 2024.
  2. ^ a b D. K. Yeomans. "Great Comets of History". ssd.jpl.nasa.gov. Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 17 June 2014.
  3. ^ "C/1618 Q1 – JPL Small-Body Database Browser". ssd.jpl.nasa.gov. Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 2 November 2024.
  4. ^ "C/1618 V1 – JPL Small-Body Database Browser". ssd.jpl.nasa.gov. Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 2 November 2024.
  5. ^ M. Ramerini (19 February 2023). "The Three Comets of 1618: A Testimony from the Spice Islands, the Moluccas". ColonialVoyage.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2 November 2024.
  6. ^ a b c W. T. Lynn (1889). "The Great Comet of 1618". The Observatory. 12: 407–408. Bibcode:1889Obs....12..407L.
  7. ^ J. B. Cysat; V. Motzel (1619). Mathemata astronomica de loco, motu, magnitudine et causis cometae qui sub finem anni 1618 et initium anni 1619 in coelo fulsit [Astronomical Calculations about the Position, Motion, Size and Causes of the Comet that Shone in the Sky from 1618 to 1619] (PDF) (in Latin). Ingolstadt, Germany: Typographeo Ederiano. Bibcode:1619madl.book.....C. doi:10.3931/e-rara-3119.
  8. ^ C. J. Cunningham (31 January 2020). "The Great Comet Confusion of 1619". AstroSociety.org. Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Retrieved 2 November 2024.
  9. ^ J. Rex; A. Maclean (1987). "King James' Poem on the Great Comet of 1618". Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 97 (2): 74. Bibcode:1987JBAA...97...74R.
  10. ^ A. B. Mari (2011). "Implied Controversy: Galileo, Orazio Grazzi and the Great Comet of 1618". Giornale Critico della Filosofia Italiana. 7 (2): 237–273.
  11. ^ A. G. Pingré (1783). Cométographie ou Traité historique et théorique des comètes [Cometography or the Historical and Theoretical Treatise on Comets] (in French). Vol. 2. Paris, France: Imprimerie Royale. pp. 7–9. ISBN 978-0-666-69133-0.
  12. ^ G. W. Kronk (1999). "Cometography: A Catalog of Comets". Cometography - A Catalog of Comets (PDF). Vol. 1: Ancient–1799. Cambridge University Press. pp. 338–341. Bibcode:1999ccc..book.....K. doi:10.1017/9781139033947.002. ISBN 978-0-521-58504-0.
  13. ^ D. A. J. Seargent (2008). The Greatest Comets in History. Broom Stars and Celestial Scimitars. Astronomers' Universe. Springer. pp. 110–112. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-09513-4. ISBN 978-0-387-09513-4.
  14. ^ P. Grego (2013). Blazing a Ghostly Trail: ISON and Great Comets of the Past and Future. Springer. pp. 89–90. ISBN 978-3-319-01775-4.
  15. ^ a b A. Horlings (3 December 2019). "Comet caused Fear in (super)religious Netherlands in 1618". Historiek.net. Retrieved 3 November 2024.
  16. ^ V. Happe (1619). "Part I, f. 24v, Chronicon Thuringiae" (in German). Retrieved 3 November 2024.
  17. ^ M. Hille (2019). "Vorboten des Dreißigjährigen Krieges? Zeitgenössische Reflexionen über die Kometen von 1618/19" [Harbinger of the Thirty Years War? Contemporary Reflections on the Comets of 1618/19] (PDF). Prague Papers on the History of International Relations (in German) (1): 7–24.
  18. ^ J. J. Wagner; L. Lavater (1681). Erzehlung vast aller Kometen, welche bis 1556 gesehen worden, mit beyfügung derjenigen Kometen, welche bis 1681 erschienen [History of All Comets Seen up to 1556, with the Addition of those Comets that appeared up to 1681] (in German). zufinden bey Joh. Heinrich Lindinner. doi:10.3931/e-rara-324.
  19. ^ J. Kepler (1619). De cometis libelli tres... [On the Three Comets...] (in Latin). Typis Andreæ Apergeri.
  20. ^ M. A. Granada; P. J. Boner (2022). Michael Maestlin's Manuscript Treatise on the Comet of 1618. Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy and Science. Vol. 33. Brill. ISBN 978-9-004-47219-8.
  21. ^ A. Vitagliano. "SOLEX 12.1". solexorb.it. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
  22. ^ James I (1618). "On the Blazeing Starr" (PDF). Of Prophecy and Portent (C. 1618–1623). Retrieved 25 June 2014.


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