When is a discovery not a discovery? In the world of astronomy, that is an excellent question. The first recorded sighting of the Tempel-Tuttle comet occurred on this date, October 26, 1366! But credit for the discovery and identification of the comet would take another 500 years, when it was independently seen and identified by Ernst Wilhelm Leberecht Tempel (December 4, 1821 – March 16, 1889, working in Marseille, France) on December 19, 1865 and by American Civil War veteran and astronomer Horace Parnell Tuttle on January 6, 1866, giving the comet its current name. The Tempel-Tuttle comet is known more for feeding the Leonid Meteor shower in mid-November. The Leonids will peak this year the nights of 16-17 November, set to coincide with a full moon. Despite a fairly short period, returning to earth every 33 years, Tempel-Tuttle has only been recorded a handful of times , notably 1699, 1688, 1965 and 1997.
The word comet is an English noun like the word planet that comes from an Ancient Greek adjective. The word comet came from Early French (circa 1200) comète via the Ancient Greek (aster) kometes which meant a (star) with long hair. The adjective kometes came from the Ancient Greek word kome meaning a head of hair. Like planet, the word for star was dropped and only the modifier remained. A comet is defined as a celestial body in the solar system, usually with an eccentric orbit, corona and tail. More about comets here:
