Comet Encke was first discovered in 1786 by French astronomer Piere A.M. Méchain (1744-1804), then in 1795 by Caroline L. Herschel (1750-1848), and again in 1805 and 1818, both by Jean L.

This is a mosaic of short-period comet Encke composed of images obtained by Jim Scotti on 1993 October 24.14, November 17.14, December 8.11 and 1994 January 5 while using the 0.91-meter...

Although the orbit of this comet appears to have been stable for several thousand years, it is puzzling to astronomers that ancient or medieval comets have not been linked to comet Encke.

NightSky Friday: Astronomers Ready for Comet Encke's Return ; By Joe Rao; SPACE.com's Night Sky Columnist; posted: 06:00 am ET; 14 November 2003;

Napier thinks a comet called Encke, discovered in 1786, is the remnant of a larger comet that broke apart 5,000 years ago. Large chunks and vast clouds of smaller debris were cast into space.

Earlier in its history, as the progenitor of comet Encke was creating it, this debris ring had to have been more dense.

The image shown is a view of the nucleus of Comet Halley taken by the Giotto spacecraft. ... 5.5 2P Encke 3.30 yrs. 2003-12-28 0.340 AU 2.21 AU 0.847 11.8 deg. 9.8 6P d'Arrest 6.51 yrs. 2008-08-01 1.346

Comet Encke observed by ISO: a closer look at a frozen mudball in action ... We took a picture of comet 2P/Encke using the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) this July (14th). The image was made

Mysteriously, Comet Encke should have been discovered millennia earlier, since it likely became bright enough to see unaided many times over the past few thousand years.

Comet Encke was traveling within the orbit of Mercury when a CME scrunched the tail and eventually tore it off the comet.