The Great Comet of 1577

This engraving depicts the Great Comet of 1577 flying over Prague on 12 November 1577. The image originally accompanied a text with the title ‘[NS1] About a terrible and marvellous comet as appeared in the sky the Tuesday after St. Martin's Day’, in which author Peter Codicillus interprets the comet’s appearance as a harbinger of bad luck and a divine warning sign.

This comet obtained the title of ‘Great Comet’ thanks to its extreme brightness and lengthy tail, and its passing was recorded across the world. The Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe famously compared his own measurements of its position in the sky with those of astronomers elsewhere in Europe. The position of the comet was the same for everyone, allowing Brahe to deduce that the comet must be at least four times further than the Moon. This made it clear that comets are not ‘windy exhalations’ of Earth that lit up the atmosphere, a belief that had prevailed for 2000 years. Firmly categorising comets as celestial bodies unrelated to our planet weakened their reputation as portents of doom.

Read more about the history of our fascination with comets here