Halley's Comet - Will we live to see it or not ?
Halley's Comet or Comet Halley, officially designated 1P/Halley, is a short-period comet visible from Earth every 74–79 years. Halley is the only known short-period comet that is regularly visible to the naked eye from Earth, and the only naked-eye comet that might appear twice in a human lifetime.
This Comet last appeared in the inner parts of the Solar System in 1986 and will next appear in mid-2061, probably in the July month.
Halley's returns to the inner Solar System have been observed and recorded by astronomers since at least 240 BC and since then Halley's orbital period has varied between 74–79 years. Clear records of the comet's appearances were made by Chinese, Babylonian, and medieval European chroniclers, but were not recognized as reappearances of the same object at the time. The comet's periodicity was first determined in 1705 by English astronomer Edmond Halley, after whom it is now named.
History of Calculating the Orbit
Sir Isaac Newton, even with his law
of motion and gravity, his work on comets was decidedly incomplete. But his suspectation of two comets appearing in succession in 1680 and 1681 were the same comet before and after passing behind the Sun and he was later found to be correct.
In the end, it was Newton's friend, Edmond Halley, who, in his 1705 Synopsis of the Astronomy of Comets, used Newton's new laws to calculate the gravitational effects of Jupiter and Saturn on cometary orbits. This calculation enabled him, after examining historical records, to determine that the orbital elements of a second comet that had appeared in 1682 were nearly the same as those of two comets that had appeared in 1531 (observed by Petrus Apianus) and 1607 (observed by Johannes Kepler).
Halley thus concluded that all three comets were, in fact, the same object returning about every 76 years, a period that has since been found to vary between 74–79 years.
After a rough estimate of the perturbations the comet would sustain from the gravitational attraction of the planets, he predicted its return for 1758.Halley died in 1742 before he could observe this himself.
The last time Halley's Comet was sighted on 8 March, 1986.
The picture taken at that moment is given below
There is no guaranty that we will see Halley's Comet again in 2061/2062. Because I know, some of us will not live to see it.
I only pray that I will get the chance though.
And I feel sorry for the people who watched Halley's Comet together with their parents.
Information Source : Wikipedia
Image Source : Google