25 Facts About Comet Kohoutek

Comet Kohoutek is a comet that passed close to the Sun towards the end of 1973.

Comet was discovered by and named after Lubos Kohoutek at the Hamburg Observatory on 18 March 1973; Kohoutek had been searching for Biela's Comet and had fortuitously discovered his eponymous comet while reviewing photographic plates for a different object.

The identification of larger and more complex molecules emanating from Kohoutek alongside related but simpler chemical species confirmed the hypothesis that comets were composed of larger molecules that dissociated into simpler products.

The significant presence of gasses and plasma expelled from Kohoutek supported the longstanding "dirty snowball" hypothesis concerning the composition of comet nuclei.

The detection of water, methyl cyanide, hydrogen cyanide, and silicon in Kohoutek were the first time such chemical species were observed in any comet.

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Comet's discovery was serendipitous: beginning in 1971, Kohoutek had been searching for Biela's Comet, which had not been observed since 1852.

The calculated orbit suggested that Comet Kohoutek's close pass of the Sun could be its first traversal of the inner Solar System.

Comet Kohoutek was near the boundary of Sagittarius and Ophiuchus during perihelion when it was visually separated from the Sun by only 0.

Analyses of Kohoutek have provided different assessments of the scale of the comet's release of dust and gas, with some suggesting that Kohoutek is relatively dust-rich and others suggesting that the comet is relatively dust-poor .

Later photometric analyses indicated that Kohoutek was a gassy comet with a high gas-to-dust ratio emblematic of comets entering the inner Solar System for the first time, suggesting a nucleus rich in volatiles and relatively depleted in refractory substances.

The surface of Comet Kohoutek's nucleus was likely covered in a mix of particles and water ice stored in clathrates.

Much of this water was evaporated away as Comet Kohoutek approached perihelion due to increased insolation, leaving behind only subsurface ices and smaller pockets of water on the nuclear surface.

Later analysis of spectrograms of Kohoutek provided strong evidence of the presence of the water cation, particularly in the comet's tail.

Comet Kohoutek was at its brightest during this period, becoming a roughly –3rd magnitude object.

Comet Kohoutek was a much brighter object in the infrared, reaching magnitudes of at least –4.

Comet Kohoutek's antitail spanned as much as 3° for ground observers; the antitail became more diffuse and dim following perihelion, making its visibility less favorable.

Comet Kohoutek was the subject of intense scientific investigation and was observed over an unprecedentedly large range of the electromagnetic spectrum.

The resulting study of Kohoutek was in its time the most comprehensive and detailed of any comet; the scale of the international effort to observe the comet would not be surpassed until the 1986 International Halley Watch for Halley's Comet.

The signature of silicon in infrared spectra of Kohoutek offered the first direct evidence of silicon in comets.

One proposal suggested that Kohoutek belonged to a subset of comets containing a non-volatile dust mantle around an icy volatile core.

The SS Rotterdam departed on a nine-day cruise beginning on 3 January 1974 to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands that was billed as a "Caribbean Comet Kohoutek Watch Cruise"; educational astronomy segments on the cruise were led by astronomer Lloyd Motz.

In 1973, David Berg, founder of the Children of God, predicted that Comet Kohoutek foretold a colossal doomsday event in the United States by the end of January 1974 because of divine judgment and "America's wickedness".

Comet Kohoutek fell far short of expectations, its name became synonymous with spectacular disappointment.

Mainstream media shied away from extensive coverage of comets following Kohoutek; despite Comet West becoming bright enough to be visible in daylight in March 1976, West received little attention from the press compared to the media frenzy that preceded Kohoutek.

References to Comet Kohoutek permeated other forms of popular media, such as in the comic strip Peanuts over a week-long period, in the sitcom El Chavo del Ocho, and a poem by Jaime Sabines.

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