Editing Sungrazing comet (section)

=== 19th century ===
Advances were made in understanding sungrazing comets in the 19th century with the Great Comets of [[C/1843 D1|1843]], C/1880 C1, and [[C/1882 R1|1882]]. C/1880 C1 and C/1843 D1 had very similar appearances and also resembled the [[X/1106 C1|Great Comet of 1106]], therefore Daniel Kirkwood proposed that C/1880 C1 and C/1843 D1 were separate fragments of the same object.<ref name=Kirkwood />   He also hypothesized that the [[parent body]] was a comet seen by [[Aristotle]] and [[Ephorus]] in 371 BC because there was a supposed claim that Ephorus witnessed the comet splitting after perihelion.<ref name=Marsden />

Comet [[C/1882 R1]] appeared only two years after the previously observed sungrazer so this convinced astronomers that these bright comets were not all the same object.  Some astronomers theorized that the comet might pass through a resisting medium near the Sun and that would shorten its period.<ref name=Marsden />   When astronomers observed C/1882 R1, they measured the period before and after perihelion and saw no shortening in the period which disproved the theory.  After perihelion this object was also seen to split into several fragments and therefore Kirkwood's theory of these comets coming from a parent body seemed like a good explanation.

In an attempt to link the 1843 and 1880 comets to the comet in 1106 and 371 BC, Kreutz measured the fragments of the 1882 comet and determined that it was likely a fragment of the 1106 comet.  He then designated that all sungrazing comets with similar orbital characteristics as these few comets would be part of the [[Kreutz Sungrazers|Kreutz Group]].<ref name=Marsden />

The 19th century also provided the first spectrum taken of a comet near the Sun which was taken by Finlay & Elkin in 1882.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Finlay|first=W.H.|author2=W.L Elkin |title=Observations of the Great Comet 1882|journal=[[Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society]]|date=November 1992|volume=43|pages=21–25|doi=10.1093/mnras/43.1.21|bibcode=1882MNRAS..43...22E|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1431845|doi-access=free}}</ref> Later the spectrum was analyzed and [[Iron|Fe]] and [[Nickel|Ni]] spectral lines were confirmed.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Orlov|first=A.|journal=Astron. Zh.|date=1927|volume=4|pages=1–9}}</ref>