Comet Encke

The Television & Movie Wiki: for TV, celebrities, and movies.

Comet Encke (officially designated 2P/Encke) is a periodic comet, named after Johann Franz Encke, who through laborious study of its orbit and many calculations was able to link multiple observations in 1786 (2P/1786 B1), 1795 (2P/1795 V1), 1805 (2P/1805 U1) and 1818 (2P/1818 W1) to the same object. In 1819 he published his conclusions in the journal Correspondance astronomique, and predicted correctly its return in 1822 (2P/1822 L1).

As its official designation implies, Encke's Comet was the second periodic comet discovered after Halley's Comet (aka 1P/Halley). It is unusual in that it was named after the person who calculated its orbit rather than the person who discovered it (Jean-Louis Pons).

Comet Encke is believed to be the originator of the Taurid meteor shower (Whipple, 1940; Klačka, 1999). Some consider the Bronze Age breakup of the originally larger comet to be responsible for ancient destruction in the Fertile Crescent, perhaps evidenced by a large meteor crater in Iraq. The origin of the swastika has also been connected with Comet Encke.

Contents 1 Comet parameters 2 Discovery 3 References 4 External links

Comet parameters

Diameter:	1–3 km
Orbital period:	3.3 years, hence semi-major axis 2.22 AU (short/small for a comet)
Orbital eccentricity:	0.85, hence distance to the Sun from 0.33 to 4.11 AU
Orbital inclination:	11.8 degrees
Discovered:	1819

Discovery

See biography of Johann Franz Encke.

References

• Klačka, Jozef (1999). "Meteor Streams of Comet Encke. Taurid Meteor Complex". Abstract

• Whipple, F.L. (1940). "Photographic meteor studies. III. The Taurid shower."

Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc., 83, 711-745.

External links

• IAU Ephemerides page for 2P

• Gary W. Kronk's Cometography page for 2P

• Comets and the Bronze Age Collapse

ca:Cometa Encke de:Enckescher Komet es:Cometa Encke fr:Comète de Encke ja:エンケ彗星 nl:Komeet Enckept:Encke pl:Kometa Enckego sv:Encke