EDMUND HALLEY

EDMUND HALLEY
( 1656 - 1742 )

Edmund Halley was a British astronomer and a mathematician. He was noted for his work on comets. Comets are formed by the collection of dust and gas. Halley calculated the orbit of a comet he observed in 1682. He proved that the comet was the same one astronomers had seen in 1531 and in 1607. He also predicted that it would return in 1758. This comet has been named after him. It is a bright, periodic comet; its average orbital speed is 76 years. The comet’s size, activity and favourably placed orbit makes it visible to the naked eye at each apparition. It is the only comet to be observed at close range by as many as three space crafts. Giolto Space craft was launched on 2 July, 1985 to study the Halley’s comet. The space craft traveling at a speed of 68 kil metres per second, passed within 500 km of the comet’s nucleus.

Halley was a contemporary of Issac Newton. Infact he was responsible for the publication of Newton’s famous work ‘prinicipia mathematica’. Halley studied the comets with the help of Newton’s Laws of motion. The unfortunate thing is that Halley didn’t live to see the comet. The same comet made its appearance again in 1986. Halley also produced the first accurate map of the stars visible from the Southern HemiSphere. Halley died in the year 1742.