Comet Timeline of Events

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Comet

A comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet...

Timeline of Events

1801

7.11.1801

French astronomer Jean-Louis Pons made his first comet discovery. In the next 27 years he discovered another 36 comets, more than any other person in history.

1892

10.13.1892

Edward Emerson Barnard discovers D/1892 T1, the first comet discovered by photographic means, on the night of October 13–14.

1998

10.24.1998

Launch of Deep Space 1 comet/asteroid mission

2003

2.18.2003

Comet C/2002 V1 (NEAT) makes perihelion, seen by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.

2004

1.2.2004

Stardust successfully flies past Comet Wild 2, collecting samples that are returned to Earth.

2005

7.4.2005

The Deep Impact collider hits the comet Tempel 1.