Posted on 04/25/2022 6:33:54 AM PDT by Varun
There is no need to tell what a comet is.
Because on such a great platform most of you may know more than me.
As I am just a student with little English.
But regardless of that, there is something you may also agree with.
That, comet is something interesting. Isn't it?
Just think about it: a small chunk of ice or dirt revolving around the sun.
Same as the facts that I have here.
1. The first comet was observed long ago around 500 B.C. by a Greek philosophers.
2. Many Scientists think that comets were leftovers from the early development of our solar system.
3. Comets have parts like the nucleus, coma and tail. Its tail can be many times longer than its rest part.
4. The most famous comet Halley comet is visible only once every 75 or 76 years.
5. Comets can travel at a speed of about 2000 miles per hour.
See some more interesting facts about comets.
(Excerpt) Read more at factshungry.com ...
Mark Twain said he “...came in with Haley’s Comet, and will go out with Haley’s Comet.”
He did (1835), and did (1910).
“The first comet was observed long ago around 500 B.C. by a Greek philosophers. ”
Because no one ever lived before 500 bc that wasn’t blind 🤪
Halley’s is greatly reduced in size from when it first began to be observed. In another few turns it’ll be more like “Halley’s meteor shower.”
Maybe the first recorded comet observation was written down by Greeks, but cave men and others before them certainly saw comets.
I think comets go faster than 2000mph. A lot faster.
One of my teachers in grade school recalled a huge scare (it must have been in 1910) because supposedly the earth was going to pass through the tail of the comet. Some folks thought it would be the end of the world. There were songs written about it.
Care to move it to college level?
Because no one ever lived before 500 bc that wasn’t blind 🤪
~~~
LOL
It’s a little bit nitpicky, but I didn’t like that “fact” either.
Obviously lots of people saw comets before the ‘greek philosophers’ did. They were just some of the relatively few to not only write things down (most cultures had oral history traditions) but also to have their works survive time.
At aphelion it may travel at 2000mph but it can go 100,000mph at perihelion.
There are 3 fact in this old jingle.
Comet, it makes your teeth turn green,
Comet, it tastes like gasoline.
Comet, it makes you vomit,
So get some Comet and vomit today!
I’d dispute the point on “observations”. The Chinese have records going back to at least 600 BC of comet observations. It is likely that recorded observations go even further back, since the sky was constantly observed by many ancient cultures that predate the Greeks by millennia.
Granted that comets were poorly understood, and even the Greeks didn’t really know what they were. It does seem that the Greeks attempted some of the first *Formal* observations of them as actual phenomena rather than as just one more thing in the sky.
“Look how green it is! It’s pure!”
Depends which engine they have.
My buddy had a 63 Comet that was a puke green and had a straight six. It was a beater back in 70. We called it the Vomit. But it got us around.
Hmm. Indeed. Or could not read Chinese.
“Ancient Chinese records of comet observations are the most extensive historical records in existence. They are far more complete than European observations.[2] The earliest confirmed Chinese comet observation is from 613 BC,[3] but there is also a possible sighting of Halley’s Comet in 1059 BC.[4] However, this may not be an actual sighting, but the result of later back calculation.[5]
Early records call comets beixing (or boxing: 孛星, “bushy star” or “sparkling star”[6] according to Yeomans et al.). Later on, a distinction is made between beixing and huixing (彗星, “broom star”), that is, comets without, and with a tail respectively. The broomstick here is a metaphor for the tail and the broomhead the head of the comet. Chinese astronomers were the first to observe that comet tails point away from the sun. They knew this by at least 635 AD, many centuries before the phenomenon was observed in the West.[7] Other descriptive Chinese names for comet include saoxing (掃星, “sweeping star”), tianchan (天攙, “heavenly intermingler”), fengxing (篷星, “sailing star”), changxing (長星, “long star”), and zhuxing (燭星, “candle-flame star”).[8]
The Chinese records are not only the most extensive from ancient times, they are also the most accurate, often to within half a degree of right ascension. Western measurements did not overtake them for accuracy until the fifteenth century: in 1456 AD Paolo Toscanelli tracked the progress of Halley’s Comet to within a fraction of a degree.[3]
Finding the time of a Chinese observation is a little more problematic. This can be very important for fast moving objects like comets. However, the dates are recorded, and the time can be estimated to within one or two hours by considering when the Chinese observers would have had good viewing conditions.[9] Comets that actually have a tail can be described as beixing when they are in opposition and the tail is not visible, giving a further clue.[8]
Chinese records of comet brightness are superior to Western observations to an even later date. The West did not overtake Chinese astronomers in this respect until the twentieth century, at least in the matter of diligent recording of brightnesses.[9]
Shades of the Transformers! It’s Bumblebee Retro!😀
I had a Comet similar to this one, except it was all yellow, no leather top, white interior. Auto trans, I don’t remember the engine size, but I do remember it was a V-6.
Nice car.
Comets are normally very shy, but wheel out a karaoke machine and wow!
Halley’s Comet, named for Edmond Halley [1656-1742], was the first ‘predicted’ comet (by Halley in 1705) based upon Sir Isaac Newton’s seminal 1687 Principia Mathematica where he formulated the first mathematical descriptions of gravity. As a ‘short period’ comet its furthest out-bound point (aphelion) is 35 AUs, beyond Neptune, while its perihelion is 0.6AU, between Mercury & Venus.
With a first record of it in 240BC, it was not until Halley, that the thought became firm that these 74-79 year appearances were of the same object. He used the appearance of 1682 to predict its return in 1758. While he died before this return, this was the 1st modeled prediction, based upon Newton’s work, that was proof of validity.
Factoids: Comets usually have 2 tails, one of dust, that is curved as it tracks the orbit, and one of ionized gas, that is blown out by the prevailing solar wind and solar magnetosphere. The more times a short-period comet (~200 years) makes its orbital pass, the less spectacular it is as these volatiles get exhausted. Long period comets are speculated to derive from the very distant Oort Cloud (20k+ AU) which means any orbital period for them can run into thousands of years.
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