The Great Comet of 372–371 BC (sometimes Aristotle's Comet) was a

comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that warms and begins to release gases when passing close to the Sun, a process called outgassing. This produces an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere or Coma (cometary), coma surrounding ...

that was observed by

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

Ephorus Ephorus of Cyme (; , ''Ephoros ho Kymaios''; 330 BC) was an ancient Greek historian known for his universal history, now lost. Biography Information on his biography is limited. He was born in Cyme, Aeolia, and together with the historia ...

, and

Callisthenes Callisthenes of Olynthus ( /kəˈlɪsθəˌniːz/; Greek: Καλλισθένης; 360 – 327 BCE) was a Greek historian in Macedon with connections to both Aristotle and Alexander the Great. He accompanied Alexander the Great during his Asiati ...

. Ephorus reported that it split into two pieces, a larger fragment that is thought to have possibly returned in 1106 AD, as

X/1106 C1 X/1106 C1, also known as the Great Comet of 1106, was a comet that appeared on 2 February 1106, and was observed around the world from the beginning of February through to mid-March. It was recorded by astronomers in Wales, England, Japan, Ko ...

, and another smaller fragment. While visible from

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

, it was said to have cast shadows at night comparable to a full moon. The

Great Comet A great comet is a comet that becomes exceptionally bright. There is no official definition; often the term is attached to comets such as Halley's Comet, which during certain appearances are bright enough to be noticed by casual observers who ar ...

is thought to possibly be the source of the

Kreutz sungrazer The Kreutz sungrazers ( ) are a family of sungrazing comets, characterized by orbits taking them extremely close to the Sun at perihelion. At the far extreme of their orbits, aphelion, Kreutz sungrazers can be a hundred times farther from the Sun ...

family.

Observations

The comet was reported to have had a long, bright

tail The tail is the elongated section at the rear end of a bilaterian animal's body; in general, the term refers to a distinct, flexible appendage extending backwards from the midline of the torso. In vertebrate animals that evolution, evolved to los ...

that had a reddish colour, as well as a

nucleus Nucleus (: nuclei) is a Latin word for the seed inside a fruit. It most often refers to: *Atomic nucleus, the very dense central region of an atom *Cell nucleus, a central organelle of a eukaryotic cell, containing most of the cell's DNA Nucleu ...

brighter than any star in the night sky. Aristotle wrote in Book 1 of

Meteorologica ''Meteorology'' ( Greek: ; Latin: ''Meteorologica'' or ''Meteora'') is a treatise by Aristotle. The text discusses what Aristotle believed to have been all the affections common to air and water, and the kinds and parts of the Earth and the affec ...

Quoting a lost source,

Diodorus Siculus Diodorus Siculus or Diodorus of Sicily (; 1st century BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek historian from Sicily. He is known for writing the monumental Universal history (genre), universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty ...

wrote that

Effect on prophecy

Diodorus Diodorus Siculus or Diodorus of Sicily (; 1st century BC) was an ancient Greek historian from Sicily. He is known for writing the monumental universal history '' Bibliotheca historica'', in forty books, fifteen of which survive intact, b ...

wrote that the comet was believed by some to have foretold the decline of the

Spartans Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the valley of Evrotas river in Laconia, in southeastern P ...

, and describes the debate over its nature.

Dispute over date

The comet is sometimes referred to as occurring during 373-372 BC instead of 372-371 BC.

Seneca Seneca may refer to: People, fictional characters and language * Seneca (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname : :* Seneca the Elder (c. 54 BC – c. AD 39), a Roman rhetorician, writer and father ...

wrote later that the sightings of the comet coincided with the destruction of Buris and Helice, suggesting a date of 373-372 BC. Most sources refer to it as occurring in 372-371 BC. Göran Henriksson writes:

Relation to other comets

Heinrich Kreutz Heinrich Carl Friedrich Kreutz (September 8, 1854 – July 13, 1907) was a German astronomer, most notable for his studies of the orbits of several sungrazing comets, which revealed that they were all related objects, produced when a very lar ...

was a German astronomer who claimed that the orbits of several sungrazing comets were related and likely produced when a large Sun-grazing comet fragmented hundreds of years previously. That group, known as the Kreutz Sungrazers, has produced some of the brightest comets ever observed, including

and

Comet Ikeya–Seki Comet Ikeya–Seki, formally designated C/1965 S1, 1965 VIII, and 1965f, was a long-period comet discovered independently by Kaoru Ikeya and Tsutomu Seki. First observed as a faint telescopic object on 18 September 1965, the first calculati ...

. Aristotle's comet may have been the progenitor of the entire group. If it was the source of all Kreutz sungrazers, it must have had a nucleus of at least 120 km in diameter. It has been speculated that the comet was

Comet Encke Comet Encke , or Encke's Comet (official designation: 2P/Encke), is a periodic comet that completes an orbit of the Sun once every 3.3 years. (This is the shortest period of a reasonably bright comet; the faint main-belt comet 311P/PanSTARRS has ...

, although this is not widely accepted.

Seneca's arguments against Euphorus

Based on the ancient Greek belief that comets were the source of celestial objects, Seneca challenged the report of Euphorus.

References

External links

Sungrazer project website

''Meteorology'', translated by E. W. Webster

HDR Astrophotography: Simulations Atlas of Past Comets (Antiquity to 1699)
by Nicolas Lefaudeux {{DEFAULTSORT:-371

0-9 A numeral system is a writing system for expressing numbers; that is, a mathematical notation for representing numbers of a given set, using digits or other symbols in a consistent manner. The same sequence of symbols may represent different ...