Halley's Comet Returns: Closest Approach to Sun
Halley's Comet swung closest to the sun on February 9, 1986, traveling at 122,000 miles per hour. It was the comet's worst show in 2,000 years. City lights had spread across the planet since 1910. Most people couldn't see it without binoculars. NASA sent a probe anyway. Giotto flew within 370 miles of the nucleus and sent back the first close-up images of a comet's core: a peanut-shaped chunk of ice and rock, blacker than coal, spewing jets of gas. The comet won't be back until 2061. By then, light pollution will have gotten worse.
February 9, 1986
40 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on February 9
Leo I needed an heir. His grandson was seven years old. So in 474, he crowned the boy's father — Zeno, an Isaurian chieftain from the mountains of southern Anat…
Bolesław I the Brave marched his forces into Bohemia to reinstall Boleslaus III as Duke, turning the region into a Polish satellite state. This intervention exp…
Bohemond of Taranto won the Battle of Antioch with an army that was starving. His Crusaders had been besieging the city for months, eating their horses, then th…
Chester's Roodee is the oldest racecourse still in use anywhere in the world. The first recorded race happened in 1539, run on a circular track around what used…
Bishop John Hooper endured three agonizing days of burning at the stake in Gloucester for refusing to renounce his Protestant convictions under Queen Mary I. Hi…
Gregory XV ascended to the papacy through acclamation, the final time the College of Cardinals bypassed a formal ballot to reach a unanimous decision. This shif…
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