Halley’s Comet Beautiful Rubble
The apocalyptic month was June. The year was 451 CE. A red point of light appeared in the sky as a fiery stream of light followed its path. Weeks later, Attila the Hun invaded France when it was under Rome’s jurisdiction. It was only a matter of time until Rome would fall and fade into history.
About 600 years later, another red point of light appeared in the sky. Eilmer of Malmesbury wrote, “You’ve come, have you? You’ve come, you source of tears to many mothers, you evil. I hate you! It is long since I saw you, but as I see you now you are much more terrible, for I see you brandishing the downfall of my country. I hate you.” Within a year, English King Harold Godwinson and his army marched south from Yorkshire to Hastings. They encountered the Normans as they invaded his land. In that battle, King Harold died when an arrow went through his eye and pierced his brain.
Then there was that time on May 6, 1910, when that same red ball of light approached our Earth’s sky as King Edward the seventh suffered a series of heart attacks and died.
However, in that same month, as the ball grew brighter and approached closer to our planet, on May 19, 1910, Oliver Wendell Holmes and his wife Fanny went to a Naval Observatory on Massachusetts Avenue to observe this ball of light. They ended up partying until 2:00 A.M., and then….
they went home.
Nothing exciting really happened. So did this red ball of light have the power to bring about death and destruction? Or was it just simply a fiery ball in the sky? What is this giant fiery red ball?
For the record, this fiery red ball is nine miles long and five miles wide. It is referred to as Halley’s Comet. This beautiful comet has been passing by our planet approximately every 76 years. Its presence was possibly noted as early as 466 BCE in ancient Greece. Even so, its appearance has led to pandemonium and fear that the comet would either destroy us, gas us to death, or indicate that terrible, horrible, destructive things would happen. Even worse, its appearance led to irrational expertise, as one famed astronomer, John Herschel, suggested that the comet be packed in a portmanteau, which is a fancy word for “suitcase.” His suggestion, posed in 1910, led to a hilarious response from the New York Times asking its readers, “Who will undertake the packing?”
This marvelous article written by Matt Simon of Wired Magazine called Fantastically Wrong: That Time People Thought a Comet Would Gas us all To Death provides the details.
So why is it called Halley’s Comet, and why does it come about every 76 years?
In 1705, the English astronomer Edmund Halley observed several comets using Newton’s theories of gravitation and planetary motion. At this time, many people believe that comets only made a single pass through our solar system. However, Halley had discovered that reports of a comet that passed in 1531, 1607, and 1682 all had a similar orbit. This discovery led him to propose that this was not a coincidence and that these were not separate comets. Rather, this was one comet that made a return trip every 76 years. Thus, he predicted that this particular comet would pass by in 1758, and he was right! It was sighted in late 1758 and passed perihelion in March of 1759. What this means is that it was closest to the sun in March 1759. Sadly, Halley did not get to see this comet, as he had passed away seventeen years earlier. Even so, the comet was named in his honor.
The comet does not pass by exactly every 76 years. Actually, its orbital period fluctuates between 74.5 years and 79 years. The comet moves backward, and so it is moving opposite to the Earth’s motion. It has an elliptical orbit with the sun at one focus of the ellipse. In other words, the sun is at one side of the narrow ellipse. Thus, unlike the earth with an almost circular orbit with the sun in the center, Halley’s Comet travels about 12.2 billion kilometers (also known as 7.6 billion miles) in a narrow ellipse.
The comet’s orbit varies because of the gravitation from the planets that it passes by. Nevertheless, Halley’s Comet stays the course as it speeds up towards the sun and then travels to the outer reaches of our solar system, past Neptune’s orbit, and then back again. And, like an old, familiar friend, Halley’s comet visits us every 76 years or so. Since the beginning of the Julian calendar, the comment has appeared on its designated year with astounding accuracy. I was going to post a spreadsheet and started to build it until I noticed that a similar spreadsheet had already been made and is on Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halley%27s_Comet#Prior_to_1066
What excites me most about observing the spreadsheet and looking at the accuracy of Edmond Halley’s predictions is that this comet has been observed for thousands of years. On some level, these viewings represent a connection between us and history. It is exhilarating to think that so many brilliant scientists that we have only read about are connected to us and have seen the same comet that we also see. Moreover, it is not just the comet; it is the stars and the moon and everything in our galaxy. We are connected to our histories through those tiny fireballs that paint our night sky.
We have something in common with all of those ancient and historical figures who have positively changed the world. We are equally inspired by the stars and their brilliant movement. It has been thousands of years since the very first observation of Halley’s Comet. However, those thousands of years are a tiny time stamp in which this gorgeous traveler has been recorded. As a result, we behold the same dance in the night sky that Copernicus, Dumay, Galileo, Hypatia, and many other brilliant scientists have looked upon and enjoyed.