Halley's Comet

It comes back every seventy-six years

You can see it with your eyes

Halley's Comet in the sky, the way watchers in past centuries saw it.

The numbers

One trip around the Sun: 76years
Last pass: 1,986
Next pass: 2,061
First known sighting: 240 BC
Nucleus: 6.8mi(11 km)

To get an idea

Someone born in 1910 who saw it again in 1986 had waited seventy-six years for it: almost a whole life.

Fun facts

These are not in the book: there was no room on paper.

Its nucleus is about seven miles long, as big as a small town.
The Talmud speaks of a star that appears every seventy years and confuses the captains of ships.
The comet leaves behind it two showers of shooting stars, which the Earth crosses every year.
Pliny the Elder wrote that comets are stars that bring terror with them.
Someone born today will be able to see it in 2061, when they are a little over thirty.

Test yourself

The first question is the one printed under the QR code, with the answer the book did not give. The other four only exist here.

Question 1 of 5★ is the one from your book

How often does Halley's Comet come back?

Question 2 of 5

What did Edmond Halley understand?

Question 3 of 5

When will the next pass be?

Question 4 of 5

How far back do written records of it go?

Question 5 of 5

What does the one in 1P/Halley mean?

Riddles

The Romans saw me, the Chinese saw me, and someone stitched me onto a tapestry after a battle. I will be back in 2061, right on time as always. What am I?

I am not a star, even though for centuries people called me one. My official name starts with the number one, because I was the first of my kind to be recognized. What am I?

Try it yourself

Activity 1

Ask a grandparent if they remember 1986. Some of them looked for it in the sky, and that year it was hard to see.

Activity 2

List the years it has passed by from 1531 until today, adding seventy-six each time, and check how close you get to 1986.

The words

perihelion: The point of an orbit closest to the Sun.
orbit: The path one body in space follows around another.

Sources: Wikidata (Q23054), Wikipedia (Cometa di Halley).