"Encke's Comet" Sculpture

Watch VIDEO on YouTube This original quartzite sculpture on granite stand is one of the latest artworks of the talented Bulgarian contemporary professional sculptor Ognyan Chitakov, deeply inspired by organic abstraction, postmodernism and abstract expressionism. It is a stunning abstract three dimensional form and an amazing elaborate carving in one solid piece of beautiful raw quartzite rock. The artist's concept is to create an unique spatial form with the help of extraordinary maze of tunnels, carvings and details, both in order and disorder and leaving the feeling of lightness and flight. The artwork is one amazing contemporary stone masterpiece and exquisite modern home décor. You can twist it by hand in both directions, as seen on the video. Encke’s Comet is having the shortest orbital period (about 3.3 years) of any known. The comet was first observed in 1786 by French astronomer Pierre Méchain. In 1819 German astronomer Johann Franz Encke deduced that sightings of apparently different comets in 1786, 1795, 1805, and 1818 were in fact appearances of the same comet and calculated its short orbital period. The comet was named in his honour, though usually comets are named after their discoverers. Encke also found that the comet’s orbital period was decreasing by about 2.5 hours every revolution and showed that this behaviour could not be explained by gravitational perturbations (slight changes in an orbit) caused by the planets. American astronomer Fred Whipple explained it in 1950 as the effect of jet forces produced by sublimation of water ice on the surface of the comet’s nucleus, in combination with the rotation of the nucleus.