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The most successful visual comet discoverer of all time was Jean-Louis Pons, who claimed to have discovered thirty-seven; the second most prolific was William Robert Brooks. The first woman known to have discovered comets was Caroline Herschel. The first telescopic discovery of a comet was made by Gottfried Kirch in 1680.
In 1783, William built her a small Newtonian reflector telescope, with a handle to make a vertical sweep of the sky. Between 1783 and 1787, she made an independent discovery of M110 (NGC 205), which is the second companion of the Andromeda Galaxy. During the years 1786–1797, she discovered or observed eight comets. [55]
A very surprising discovery is that as the comet travels, it releases an increasing amount of water vapor. [61] That water is also different from that on Earth, being heavier because it contains more deuterium. [61] This comet was also found to be made from a cold space cloud, which is why it is made of dust and ice loosely compacted. [61]
The third comet was discovered on 7 January 1790, and the fourth one on 17 April 1790. She announced both of these to Sir Joseph Banks, and all were discovered with her 1783 telescope. [29] In 1791, Caroline began to use a 9-inch telescope for her comet-searching, and discovered three more comets with this instrument. [13]
Comet Hale–Bopp (formally designated C/1995 O1) is a long-period comet that was one of the most widely observed of the 20th century and one of the brightest seen for many decades. [11] [12] [13] Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp discovered Comet Hale–Bopp separately on July 23, 1995, before it became visible to the naked eye.
Halley's Comet is the only known short-period comet that is consistently visible to the naked eye from Earth, [16] appearing every 72–80 years, [17] though with the majority of recorded apparations (25 of 30) occurring after 75–77 years.
This is a list of astronomical objects named after people.While topological features on Solar System bodies — such as craters, mountains, and valleys — are often named after famous or historical individuals, many stars and deep-sky objects are named after the individual(s) who discovered or otherwise studied it.
William Ashley Bradfield AM (20 June 1927 – 9 June 2014) was a New Zealand-born Australian amateur astronomer, notable as a prolific amateur discoverer of comets. [3] He discovered 18 comets, all of which bear his name as the sole discoverer.