Translations:Comets/50/en

Comet Kohoutek, billed as the “comet of the century,” was first discovered on March 7, 1973, by astronomer Lubos Kohoutek at Hamburg Observatory in West Germany. Toward the end of November, the comet’s bright head grew faintly visible to the naked eye; its tails, which extended over thirty million miles, could be seen by mid-December in the Northern Hemisphere. On the date of perihelion (the point of its orbit nearest our sun), December 28, 1973, the comet was no longer visible from earth’s surface but appeared as a brilliant mass superimposed on the solar corona in a photograph taken by satellite. Comet Kohoutek’s next appearance is expected in an estimated 75,000 years.