Aristotle, Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler and Sir Isaac Newton all tinkered with the ideas of Comet's but it was Halley who did the maths and stated that the Comet's which had been observed since 240BC was in fact, the same object returning about every 76 years and his reward was to have the Comet named after him and in turn a one eyed country and western singer named his band after him in the 1950's.
It last appeared in our skies in 1986 and will next appear in mid-2061 but it does leave behind a couple of impressive meteor shower's, the Eta Aquariids in early May and the Orionids in October.
Edmond Halley predicted the return of his Comet in 1758 but missed it on account of him dying in 1742 but it will be zooming by for quite a few years yet as the peanut shaped 'dirty snowball' 9.3 miles long and 5 miles wide which photo-bombed (Embroidery bombed?) the Bayeux Tapestry when it flew by during the Battle of Hastings in 1066 will be visiting us for either the next 10 million years if it stays intact or 10 thousand years if it breaks up or not at all if it gets too close to Jupiter or Saturn and gets kicked out the Solar System although Mark Twain may have wished that happened a while ago.
He famously said that as he was born within hours of Halley's Comet passing the earth, he would go to the great big steamboat in the sky with it also and it must have come as much as a surprise to him when it showed up and hours later he died of a heart attack.
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