Artist's impression of a comet's nucleus

Encke was a German astronomer who found the period of Encke's Comet to be just over three years. This is the shortest period of any known comet.

The comet was first discovered in 1786 by Pierre Méchain while searching for comets in the Aquarius region of the sky. Mechain said the comet appeared fairly bright when viewed through a telescope and exhibited a faint, narrow tail. The comet's second discovery was made by Caroline Herschel during a routine sweep for comets in 1795. It was quickly confirmed by her brother William Herschel, who noted it could be seen with the naked eye. The comet's third discovery was made by Jean Louis Pons in 1805.

Encke would ultimately be the first person to recognise that those comets discovered in 1786, 1795 and 1805 were the same comet.