Bloomington High School South, The Gothic, 1986, Page 22

Description:	J tie,ocuSea onvend^MalttThis decades celestialevent, the return of Halleyscomet, caused muchexcitement. Millions ofpeople around the globeeagerly awaited thecomets arrival, which waslast seen 76 years ago in1910.Like its tail, Halleyscomet has a very longhistory. The first clearlieu 6 comet 6trecord of sighting the tailingcomet goes as far back as240 B.C. when peoplebelieved comets were evilomens, and it has nevermissed any of its 29returns since then.In 1682, a young mannamed Edmond Halley wasvery impressed by a brightcomet reportedly viewedby millions of people. Hetreakbegan studying the cometand calculated that thesame bright light wouldreturn every 76 years. In1758, his prediction wasconfirmed; although, he didnot witness it himselfbecause he was dead. Thisillustrious return made thecomet and Halleys namesynonomous.Halleys comet was oftenconfused with a shootingstar, quickly flashingacross the sky. In actuality,it creeps very slowly, whichallowed it to be seen forseveral months in late 1985and early 1986.Patterns of stars remainthe same year after year;however, every so often, afuzzy, dim ball of lightappears among the• :-f% . * o.- •• 4 ,«. • & ° •. • \ .> •• . -,0 « .;^^^,-patterns. These balls oflight were named comets,from the latin words forhairy star.The comets latestperformance wasanticipated withexcitement. In fact, cometfever hit the public ascompanies promoted suchproducts as cometwatches, t-shirts, tailedfrisbees and even cometfever pills. The sales ofbinoculars and telescopeswere also raiseddramatically, allowing theopportunity to view thecomet from their ownbackyard.Unfortunately, 1985-86return of the comet was notunder the most favorableviewing conditions. Thecomet did not travel veryclose to Earth. Thus,vfewing capabilities werereduced to a fuzzy spot inthe heavens. The cometsbest performance was inApril of 1986 and wasviewed the clearest fromthe topics.In March of 1986, fiveunmanned space probeswere sent carryingcameras and radioequipment right throughthe comets head for apremiere examination of acomets internal make-up.The largest of the probeswas sent by elevenEuropean countries. It wasnamed Giotto, after anItalian artist who hadglorified the comet in hispaintings. Giotto racedthrough the comets headat a speed of 42 miles persecond. It was expected tobe destroyed by flyingdebris near the nucleus butnot before it radioed backvital information. TheSoviet Union and Japanalso sent spacecrafts tophotograph and analize thecomets internal materialand gases. Americanspacecrafts were to besent as well but they werecancelled due to a lack offunds. However, variousstudies were conductedusing telescopes on thespace shuttle. All in all, thecomet of 1985-86 was byfar the most studied cometin history.
Source:	http://cdm17129.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/hs-bloomsouth/id/2438
Collection:	Bloomington High School South

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