Skip to content

How Bright Will Comet ISON Be? A Look Back to 1680

At the end of next month, Comet ISON is expected to be at its brightest, when it is nearest to the Sun. Still, no one knows exactly what it will look like. 
Sign up for the Smarter Faster newsletter
A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

At the end of next month, Comet ISON is expected to be at its brightest, when it is nearest to the Sun. Still, no one knows exactly what it will look like. And so, to provide a hint, NASA dug up the image above, which is Comet Kirch, the Great Comet of 1680 that is pictured above a crowd of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Some people in the crowd are holding cross-staffs, a primitive angle measuring device.

This image is a painting by Lieve Versheier, and it represents the moment when Comet Kirch was also nearest to the Sun. 

Illustration Credit: Lieve Verschuier

Sign up for the Smarter Faster newsletter
A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people
Related
A person with long curly hair and a headband gestures with one hand, wearing a black shirt that says "everyday" and a smartwatch on the other wrist, against a plain background.
Former CIA agent: The truth about manipulation
“The truth is that the skills that go into both motivation and manipulation are almost the same skills. The same level of persuasion, the same level of influence, the same level of charisma and dynamic creative thinking drives us to both be manipulated and be motivated.”
▸
13 min
—
with
Andrew Bustamante
Up Next