The Great Comet of 1843, formally designated C/1843 D1 and 1843 I, was a long-period comet which became very bright in March 1843 (it is also known as the Great March Comet). It was discovered on February 5, 1843, and rapidly brightened to become a great comet. It was a member of the Kreutz sungrazers, specifically the Population I subgroup that originated from the breakup of a large parent comet in February 1106. These comets pass extremely close to the surface of the Sun—within a few solar radii—and often become very bright as a result.

Perihelion

First observed in early February, 1843, it raced toward an incredibly close perihelion of about 827,000 km (~132,000 km from the surface of the Sun) on February 27, 1843; at this time it was observed in broad daylight roughly a degree away from the Sun. It passed closest to Earth on March 6, 1843, at a distance of 0.84 AU, and was at its greatest brilliance the following day; unfortunately for observers north of the equator, at its peak it was best visible from the Southern Hemisphere. It was last observed on April 19, 1843. At that time this comet had passed closer to the Sun than any other known object.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center; font-size: 0.9em;"

|+C/1843 D1 perihelion (closest approach to the center of the Sun) on 27 February 1843<br/>(The Sun has a radius of )

! Perihelion<br/>(Sun approach)

! Earth distance<br/>(AU)

! Sun centerpoint distance<br/>(AU)

! Velocity<br/>relative to Earth<br/>(km/s)

! Velocity<br/>relative to Sun<br/>(km/s)

! Solar<br/>elongation

|-

| 27 February 1843 ≈21:59 || || || 552.4 || 566.6 || 0.29°

|}

Physical characteristics

thumb|upright|left|Charles Piazzi Smyth: The Great Comet of 1843

Nucleus size

Estimates in 2022 based on reconstructions of the origin of Kreutz sungrazers revealed that the nucleus of the Great Comet of 1843 possibly was about in effective radius, with a mass of approximately 7.30 kg before it disintegrated upon perihelion.

Tail

The Great Comet of 1843 developed an extremely long tail during and after its perihelion passage. At over two astronomical units in length, it was the longest known cometary tail until measurements in 1996 showed that Comet Hyakutake's tail was almost twice as long. There is a painting in the National Maritime Museum that was created by astronomer Charles Piazzi Smyth with the purpose of showing the overall brightness and size of the tail of the comet.

Orbit

Estimates for the orbital period of the comet have varied from years (Kreutz's classical work from 1901), years, 687 years, and 742 years. But the comet was only observed over a period of 45 days from March 5 to April 19, and the uncertainties mean it likely has an orbital period of 600 to 800 years.

Recent studies in 2022 and 2025 further solidified the link between the comets of 1106 and 1843 after their orbits were traced back to the comet witnessed by Ammianus Marcellinus in 363 AD.

Musical depiction

The Mexican composer Luis Baca composed a waltz for piano, El cometa de 1843. It appeared as no. 13 in Instructor filarmónico, periódico semanario musical, Tomo primero (Mexico, 1843).

See also

  • Charles Piazzi Smyth
  • List of Kreutz sungrazers
  • Great Comet of 1882
  • Great Southern Comet of 1880
  • Great Southern Comet of 1887
  • X/1882 K1 (Tewfik)

Notes

References

  • "Der Komet" in Illustrite Zeitung, 1843 (German with 1 drawing)
  • Orlon Petterson, "Great Comets in History" (Accessed 2/7/06)
  • C/1843 D1 at Gary W. Kronk's Cometography
  • "Saw a comet star ablazing..." Log of the New Bedford whaling ship Washington, March 6, 1843, Nantucket Historical Association
  • Instructor filarmónico, periòdico semanario musical, Tomo primero, page 53; digitized by the Gaylord Music Library, Washington University in St. Louis