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Under these circumstances, the knowledge acquired of its orbit was of more than usual accuracy, and showed conclusively that the comet was not a simple return of Bessel's; for this would involve a period of seventy-four years, whereas Tebbutt's comet cannot revisit the sun until after the lapse of two and a half millenniums.
None of the ultra-violet carbon groups were apparent; but certain bright rays, as yet unidentified, had imprinted themselves. Otherwise the spectrum was strongly continuous, uninterrupted even by the Fraunhofer lines detected in the spectrum of Tebbutt's comet. Hence it was concluded that a smaller proportion of reflected light was mingled with the native emissions of the later arrival.
The comets of 1807 and 1881 are, then, regarded with much probability as fragments of a primitive disrupted body, one following in the wake of the other at an interval of seventy-four years. Imperfect photographs were taken of Donati's comet both in England and America; but Tebbutt's comet was the first to which the process was satisfactorily applied.
Here, then, once more the perplexing choice had to be made between a premature and unaccountable reappearance and the admission of a plurality of comets moving nearly in the same path. But in this case facts proved decisive. Tebbutt's comet passed the sun, June 16, at a distance of sixty-eight millions of miles, and became visible in Europe six days later.
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