Why is Halleys Comet so famous?
I’ve pretty much answered this question above — It is only because Edmond Halley, the Royal Astronomer of England, studied the orbits of comets and was the FIRST to determine that comets had elliptical orbits and traveled around the Sun. Because they returned regularly (depending on the size of the orbit) they are called “periodic” comets. In addition, Halley’s Comet happens to have an orbit which is similar to the average lifetime of a person — 76 years. Some people get to see it twice, if they live long enough. It also has a lot of “folk lore” attached to it. In effect, it isn’t much different than any other comet, just that it has this “reputation” because of Edmond Halley and his prediction — and was the first to PROVE that comets actually returned “periodically”. Also, because of its predictability and “reputation” we’ve had some of the fun with it throughout history. Mark Twain talked about “coming in and going out” with the comet, as he was born in 1835 and died in 1910 as th
