Project Gutenberg on Nostr: #OTD in 1801. French astronomer Jean-Louis Pons makes his first comet discovery. In ...

#OTD in 1801. French astronomer Jean-Louis Pons makes his first comet discovery. In the next 27 years he discovers another 36 comets, more than any other person in history.

Pons's work supported some famous comet recoveries of the 19th century, including Encke's Comet and Crommelin's Comet. However, most of the comets he discovered had parabolic orbits and would not return for a time as long as several millennia. via npub1kvnpp3m60derhwpqwc09zhk3ehk48tr6agc6dk9z2vggu9sga28qpxhm73 (npub1kvn…hm73)

#science #astronomy