Halley's Comet

Halley'sComet

Comets have amazed, interested, and driven scientists to study them often. Comets like the Hale-Bopp have been seen by millions of people. Since the discovery of comets, scientists, astrologers, or and even your next door neighbor have been interested in discovering or studying comets. Like Halley's Comet which has had a real impact on the history of comets.

Halley's comet put on bright shows for the planet Earth ever since 204 BC, maybe even 1059 BC. Its most famous appearance was in 1066 AD, right before the battle of Hastings. It was named after Edmund Halley, who found out its orbit. He predicted that the appearances in 1531 and 1607 were the same comet that made a 76-year orbit. Halley died in 1742, never to see if his prediction should come true, which it did in 1758.

Only three comets were ever studied by a spacecraft. Comet Giacobini-Zinner was studied in 1985, Comet Halley in 1986, and Comet Grigg-Skijellup on July 10th, 1992. Halley's comet made appearances in 1835and then in 1910. Then after in 1984 and 1985, five spacecrafts from Russia, Japan, and Europe were launched to make rendezvous with the comet in 1985. One of NASA's deep space satellite was reprogrammed to monitor the solar wind that was from Halley. The nucleus(entire body) is an ellipsoidal shape and measures about 16 by 8 by 8 kilometers(10 by 5 by 5 miles). Next perihelion is determined to be in 2061 because it orbits every 76 years. The well developed tail structure of Halley's Comet is made up of both dust and ion. One of the most spectacular showings was the one when a piece of the comet ion tail breaks off. This was seen and photographed in 1986, by a telescope at Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory at NASA. Halley's Comet obviously never came in contact with any other comets or planets.

Halley's Comet was a big thing in the space organization. Some people wait all their live to see this bright comet. If im lucky and live to 77 years old, I'll get to see Halley's Comet shooting over earth. Edmund Halley never got to see it twice, but he was the one to discover Halley's comet, so I think that's even better than just seeing it.