1702 in science

The year 1702 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy

• April 20 – Comet of 1702 (C/1702 H1): The 10th-closest comet approach in history, it missed Earth by a distance of 0.0437 AU (6,537,000 km).^[1]
• May 5 – Globular cluster Messier 5 (M5, NGC 5904) is discovered by Gottfried Kirch and his wife Maria Margarethe.
• David Gregory publishes the first textbook, Astronomiae physicae et geometricae elementa, the first astronomy textbook based on Isaac Newton's principles of motions and theory of gravitation.^[2][3]

Technology

• A fountain pen is developed by French instrument-maker Nicholas Bion.^[4][5]
• Pierre Varignon applies calculus to spring-driven clocks.

Births

• November 5 – Edward Stone, English polymath (died 1768)^[6]
• Undated
  • Giuseppa Barbapiccola, Italian natural philosopher, poet and translator (died 1740)
  • Benjamin Stillingfleet, English botanist (died 1771)

Deaths

• April – Clopton Havers, English physician who did pioneering research on the microstructure of bone (born 1657)
• December 12 – Olof Rudbeck, Swedish physiologist who discovered that the thoracic duct is connected to the intestinal lymphatics (born 1630)