REKONSTRUKSI PENGAMATAN KOMET TAHUN 837 M DARI CATATAN SEJARAH

• Main Author: Aulia Wulandari, Mizwala
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Subjects: Astronomi
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/66025
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Until the 17th century, comets were still regarded as objects of occurrence and bringers of havoc for mankind. The scientific study of comets started too late because people did not believe that comets were divine warnings and were evil in nature. The ancient Chinese people believed that events in the sky directly reflected events on earth. However, as science progressed, this celestial object was known to be composed of rock, ice and dust and appeared to possess it as it moved closer to the Sun. This final project discusses the appearance of a comet in 837 AD which was recorded quite well in several historical sources such as China, Japan, Germany, and Baghdad. This record gives the position of the comet in the sky on March 19 to May 3, 837 AD. From this note, a reconstruction of the comet's position against the sky background will be made which will be compared with the comet position plot from the backward integration using Halley software - Electronic Ephemeris of Comet . A total of 33 comets from the Minor Planet Center have been selected based on their magnitude and perihelion distance of 837 AD, then backward orbit integration was performed using the Halley software. The results of the reconstruction show that the comet that appeared in 837 AD was comet 1P/Halley. There is a position difference of about 20° to 150° between the historical observation data and the results of the backward orbit integration, but both have the same direction of movement.