Ok I am doing a Science poster about comet Kohoutek. I need Information as i can't find a lot. What is it made of? how big is it? where was it found? How often does it come around? When was it found? all that sort of stuff but any info would really help! :)
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I have a lot of affection for Comet Kohoutek as it was the first comet i was aware of as a child in 1973. It was discovered by Lubos Kohoutek from an observatory in Hamburg in March of that year and was the first comet to be photographed from space, by Skylab astronauts on a spacewalk, and was also observed from the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz XIII. It seemed to be new, i.e. this is the first time it has come into the inner solar system, and its perihelion was in December, i think.
Its maximum brightness was greater than Mercury's but since it was then very close to the Sun (0.14 AU), it wouldn't've looked very bright and to be honest i can't actually remember seeing it though it was pointed out to me in the sky, i think (i was more interested in following Skylab!). It has an hyperbolic orbit, meaning that it will never enter the solar system again and its orbit will take it ever further from the Sun.
Its maximum brightness was greater than Mercury's but since it was then very close to the Sun (0.14 AU), it wouldn't've looked very bright and to be honest i can't actually remember seeing it though it was pointed out to me in the sky, i think (i was more interested in following Skylab!). It has an hyperbolic orbit, meaning that it will never enter the solar system again and its orbit will take it ever further from the Sun.
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Did you try going to Google and entering "comet kohoutek"? The first page of results has over a dozen really good references - everything from Wikipedia to NASA.