Miss Mitchell's Comet, formally designated as C/1847 T1, is a

non-periodic comet The following is a list of comets with a very high Orbital eccentricity, eccentricity (generally 0.99 or higher) and a Orbital period, period of over 1,000 years that do not quite have a high enough Escape velocity, velocity to escape the Solar Sys ...

that American

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...

Maria Mitchell Maria Mitchell ( ; August 1, 1818 – June 28, 1889) was an American astronomer, librarian, naturalist, and educator. In 1847, she discovered a comet named 1847 VI (modern designation C/1847 T1) that was later known as " Miss Mitchell's Comet ...

discovered in 1847. The discovery was initially credited to

Francesco de Vico Father Francesco de Vico (also known as de Vigo, De Vico and even DeVico; 19 May 1805 in Macerata – 15 November 1848 in London) was an Italian astronomer and a Jesuit priest. Biography He was educated at the college of Urbino, and became in 18 ...

. Vico, observing from Rome, was the first to report the comet's discovery in Europe. However, Mitchell observed the comet two days before Vico did, so she became recognized as the comet's discoverer. The comet had a weakly hyperbolic orbit solution while inside the planetary region of the Solar System. An orbit solution when the comet is outside of the planetary region shows that the comet is bound to the Sun.

References

18471001 Non-periodic comets Hyperbolic comets {{comet-stub