[17] In April 1984 the Pioneer Venus Orbiter observed the comet in ultra-violet and made measurements of its rate of water loss.

On 20 April 2007, STEREO-A observed the tail of Comet Encke to be temporarily torn off by magnetic field disturbances caused by a coronal mass ejection (a blast of solar particles from the Sun).

[19] The tail grew back due to the continuous shedding of dust and gas by the comet.

[21] In the 1970s the Goddard Space Flight Centre and Jet Propulsion Laboratory proposed to NASA probes that would fly past the comet in 1980.

[25] Measurements on board the NASA satellite MESSENGER have revealed Encke may contribute to seasonal meteor showers on Mercury.

The Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer (MASCS) instrument discovered seasonal surges of calcium since the probe began orbiting the planet in March 2011.

The spikes in calcium levels are thought to originate from small dust particles hitting the planet and knocking calcium-bearing molecules into the atmosphere in a process called impact vaporization.

However, the general background of interplanetary dust in the inner Solar System cannot, by itself, account for the periodic spikes in calcium.

[26] More than one theory has associated Encke's Comet with impacts of cometary material on Earth, and with cultural significance.

In their 1982 book Cosmic Serpent (page 155) Victor Clube and Bill Napier reproduce an ancient Chinese catalogue of cometary shapes from the Mawangdui Silk Texts, which includes a swastika-shaped comet, and suggest that some comet drawings were related to the breakup of the progenitor of Encke and the Taurid meteoroid stream.

One reference reads: Encke's pole tumbles in an 81-year period, therefore it will accelerate for half that time, and decelerate for the other half of the time (since the orientation of the comets rotation to solar heating determines how its orbit changes due to outgassing forward or aft of the comet's course).

The authors of this 1860 textbook of course could not know that the pole of the comet would tumble as it does over such a long period of time, or that outgassing would induce a thrust to change its course.

The supposed shortening of the orbit of Encke's Comet demonstrating the existence of ether was mentioned in Edgar Alen Poe's story, "The Unparalleled Adventures Of One Hans Pfaall".