During colonial North America, a bright, icy, small Solar System body passed by Earth and was observed by English astronomer Edmond Halley (1656-1742). Its tail was over 96 million miles long of dust and gas blown out from the coma surrounding its nucleus. Halley's calculations predicted the comet would return in 1758, and it did. The Comet has been observed throughout history, including in North America. Halley noticed that comets appeared in 1531, 1607, and 1682, all about 76 years apart. He used Isaac Newton's law of gravity to calculate the orbits of the comets. He concluded that these comets were actually the same comet returning on a long elliptical orbit around the sun.

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Audio Credit: Bedtime Astronomy podcast, Halley's Comet: The Celestial Beacon of Time (July 20, 2024; Synthetic Universe). Audio excerpts reproduced under the Fair Use (Fair Dealings) Legal Doctrine for purposes such as criticism, comment, teaching, education, scholarship, research and news reporting.