Week 10
This Week in History: March 1-7
MARCH 1, 1705: British astronomer Edmond Halley publishes his calculations of the orbits of the comets of 1531, 1607, and 1682, concluding that they are individual returns of the same comet, and that that comet would return in 1758. His prediction turned out to be correct, and the comet has been named in his honor. …
Comet of the Week: West 1975n
Perihelion: 1976 February 25.22, q = 0.197 AU What I consider to be the best comet I have ever seen was missed by most of the general public. Part of this was due to the fact that it put on its best appearance in the sleepy hours before dawn, but a large part of it …
Special Topic: Fred Whipple’s Comet Model
Once it had become clear that comets are bona fide members of the solar system just as planets and asteroids are, the question then becomes just what their physical nature might be. While they may appear to be fairly large in our nighttime sky, the fact that background stars shine through their tails and their …
Whipple’s Shield protected Giotti
When the Giotti spacecraft launched on its voyage to explore Halley’s Comet in 1985, it was an invention by the son of an Iowa farmer decades earlier that allowed the mission to be successful. The most difficult problem of the mission to overcome was how to ensure that Giotto survived long enough to snap its …