Comet Halley is the only known short-period comet that is regularly visible to the naked eye from Earth. Halley last appeared in the inner parts of the Solar System in 1986 and will next appear in mid-2061. During its 1986 apparition, Halley’s Comet became the first comet to be observed in detail by spacecraft. It provided the first observational data on the structure of a comet nucleus.
About Halley’s Comet in brief
Comet Halley is the only known short-period comet that is regularly visible to the naked eye from Earth. Halley last appeared in the inner parts of the Solar System in 1986 and will next appear in mid-2061. During its 1986 apparition, Halley’s Comet became the first comet to be observed in detail by spacecraft. It provided the first observational data on the structure of a comet nucleus and the mechanism of coma and tail formation. It was also one of the earliest successful tests of Newtonian physics, and a demonstration of its explanatory power. The comet was first named inHalley’s honour by French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille in 1759. Some scholars have proposed that comet’s first-century astronomers had already recognized that Halley had already returned to the Sun in Mesopotamian times. It is commonly pronounced ˈhæli, rhyming with valley, or ˈheɪli, rhymes with daily. The contemporary pronunciation is uncertain, but current bearers of this surname appear to prefer the version thatrhymes with \”valley\”. Halley was the first Comet to be recognized as periodic. It has since been found to vary between 74 and 79 years, with a period of 74 to 79 years. It did not pass through its perihelion until 13 March 1759, the attraction of Jupiter and Saturn having caused a retard of 618 days. This effect was computed before its return by a team of three mathematicians, Alexis Clair, Joseph Lalande, and Nicole Leputea Lepute.
It’s the only naked-eye comet that can appear twice in a human lifetime, and will do so again in 2061, when Halley will return to the inner Solar System for the first time in 75 years. The name Halley comes from the English astronomer Edmond Halley, who predicted the comet’s return in 1758. He died in 1742 before he could observe its predicted return, but it was seen by Johann Georgitzsch, a German farmer and amateur astronomer, on 25 December 1758, by the time Halley returned in 1760. The current pronunciation of Halley’s name during his lifetime included Hailey, Haley, Hayley, Halary, Hawley, and Hawly, so its contemporary pronunciation of the name is uncertain. It also rhymes with crawly, rhymed with daily, and with Hailey and Haley, and rhymed with Hailey and Haley in the 1680s and 1690s. It is the only comet to have been named after Halley. It will be visible from Earth every 75–76 years, and its return is predicted to be on December 25, 2061. Its return will be the first to be seen by the public in more than 100 years.Halley was first recognized as a periodic comet by Sir Isaac Newton in 1705. He used Newton’s new laws to calculate the gravitational effects on comets on cometary orbits.
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This page is based on the article Halley’s Comet published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 06, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
