Halley’s Comet reaches its farthest point from the Sun on Saturday (9)

Considered the most popular comet in history 1P/Halley It will reach disaster point on Saturday morning, December 9th. This means that the celestial body, which has a 75-year orbit within the solar system, will reach its farthest point from the Sun. This location represents the exact midpoint between the comet’s last appearance in 1986 and the next planned comet. for 2061.

Because of this regularity, Halley is considered a short-period comet. In contrast, it is the only known periodic object that can be seen twice during a human’s existence.

Those who saw Halley’s 1986 appearance and were probably disappointed that it wasn’t as brilliant as people expected will now have a new chance in 2061. According to astronomers, The future transit will be closer to Earth, making it as bright as the stars in the night sky.

How to observe Halley’s Comet on the 9th?

exactly at that moment Halley’s Comet will be at the apocalypse at 10:00 a.m. Brazilian time on December 9. At that moment, the object consisting of ice, dust and rocks will be 35.14 Astronomical Units (the average distance between the Earth and the Sun) from our planet.

Moving at a speed of 0.91 kilometers per second relative to the Sun, Halley will be beyond Neptune’s orbit on Saturday and will shine at magnitude +35, which is considered extremely high. Unfortunately, on the astronomical scale, the higher the number, the lower the brightness of the observed object.

This brightness puts the comet beyond the reach of amateur telescopes and even some professionals. Neither NASA appears interested in imaging Halley in the aphelion “by imaging or spectroscopy” through the Hubble or James Webb telescopes, Christine Pulliam, news director for the NASA Space Telescope Science Institute, told Universe Today.

Halley’s Comet Stories

British astronomer Sir Edmond Halley was the first person to correctly calculate the periodicity of the comet that bears his name. In 1696 he predicted that the object would return in 1758, but he did not survive to witness its success.

Currently, there is The 472 known periodic comets are so named because their orbits are less than 200 years..

But the traditional comet was already well known to astronomers, and Chinese observations of this object date back to B.C. It was recorded in 467. American writer Mark Twain also made a prediction about the comet: He was born during Halley’s passage in 1835 and said that he would die. in the next view. In 1910 the comet returned and he died.

Did you like the content? Stay informed about more astronomical events like this at TecMundo, and also enjoy learning about the comet visible to the naked eye that resembles the Millennium Falcon spacecraft.