dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd) (11/08/84)
Today's the birthday of the man for whom Halley's Comet was named. More on Edmund Halley -- right after this. November 8 A Remarkable Prediction Today is Edmund Halley's birthday. Now, you may not recognize Halley's name. But you've probably heard of the comet named in his honor. Halley's is the most widely known of all comets. It's also one of the most widely mispronounced. Many of us call it "Hailey's" comet. This comet returns to our vicinity once every seventy-six years. That regularity originally won the comet's fame -- and still makes it possible for long-lived individuals to see it twice in a single lifetime. If you saw the comet in 1910 -- we're talking about you. The comet is coming back now -- and though it'll be faint this time around, it will be visible to careful observers in country locations in early 1986. Even if Halley's comet never returned, it would still go down in astronomical history. And so would Edmund Halley, who was the first person to prove that comets -- like planets -- orbit the sun. History contains many references to bright comets. But, before Halley, no one realized that a few comets are sighted over again on return trips near the sun that binds them in orbit. In 1682, Halley tracked a bright comet across the sky. Its similarity to the comets of 1531 and 1607 made him suspect that all three were the same object. He predicted a return of the comet for 1758. And, right on schedule, the comet did return. It was a posthumous triumph for Halley, who'd died 16 years earlier. Comets are usually named for those who discover them -- but this comet was named for Edmund Halley, to honor his remarkable prediction. Script by Deborah Byrd. (c) Copyright 1983, 1984 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin