Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The confirmation of the comet's return was the first time anything other than planets had been shown to orbit the Sun. [36] It was also one of the earliest successful tests of Newtonian physics, and a clear demonstration of its explanatory power. [37] The comet was first named in Halley's honour by French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille in ...
Science fiction historian Sam Moskowitz describes The Planet, first published in July 1930, two months after The Comet, as the first fan magazine to focus on science fiction rather than science. [1] The authors of Fancyclopedia 3 argue The Planet is the first fanzine for this reason. [ 8 ]
Coin showing Caesar's Comet as a star with eight rays, tail upward. Non-periodic comets are seen only once. They are usually on near-parabolic orbits that will not return to the vicinity of the Sun for thousands of years, if ever.
The tail of a comet points toward the direction of the Sun as it is moving through space based on the laws of refraction. The comet’s tail is composed of an air-like element that is transparent as it is seen in space but only when it is faced away from the Sun. The visibility of the tail is explained by solar rays reflecting off of the tail.
The opening sentence or opening line stands at the beginning of a written work. The opening line is part or all of the opening sentence that may start the lead paragraph . For older texts the Latin term incipit ('it begins') is in use for the very first words of the opening sentence.
A rare example of the opposite—positive effects arising from Earth encountering a comet—appears in H. G. Wells's 1906 novel In the Days of the Comet: the gases in the comet's tail alter the atmosphere in a way that transforms human character for the better. [1] [2] [4]: 119 [6]
The comet was mentioned in the 17th century Vietnamese chronicle Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư, Book 17, part 1: "In November 1577 (lunar calendar), comet appears, pointing at the southeastern sky, its luminous tail is as long as 40 zhàng with rose and purple tint, everyone was frightened. On first date of December, the comet disappears".
Isaac Newton used the comet to test and verify Kepler's laws. [10] John Flamsteed was the first to propose that the two bright comets of 1680–1681 were the same comet, one traveling inbound to the Sun and the other outbound, and Newton originally disputed this.