a comet (=an object in space like a bright ball with a long tail) that moves around the Sun and passes close to the Earth every 76 years. It was named after the English astronomer Edmund Halley (1656-1742), and it last appeared close to the Earth in 1986. First comet whose return was predicted, proving that at least some comets are members of the solar system. Edmond Halley showed in 1705 that comets seen in 1531, 1607, and 1682 were really one comet, and he predicted its return in 1758. Later calculations identified it with the large, bright comet seen during the Norman Conquest (and depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry) and with other comet sightings at intervals of about 76 years, the first in 240 BC. The only easily seen comet that returns in a single lifetime, it approached Earth twice in the 20th century (1910, 1985-86). Its nucleus is roughly 9 mi (15 km) across
born Nov. 8, 1656, Haggerston, Shoreditch, near London died Jan. 14, 1742, Greenwich, near London English astronomer and mathematician. He studied at the University of Oxford. In 1676 he set sail for the South Atlantic with the intention of compiling an accurate catalog of the stars of the Southern Hemisphere. His star catalogue (1678) recorded the position of 341 stars. In 1684 he met Isaac Newton at Cambridge, which led to his prominent role (with Robert Hooke and Christopher Wren) in the development of Newton's law of gravitation. Halley edited Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, bringing it to print in 1687. He produced the first meteorological chart (1686, showing the distribution of prevailing winds in the world's oceans) and magnetic charts of the Atlantic and Pacific (1701). In astronomy, he described the parabolic orbits of 24 comets observed in the years 1337-1698. He showed that three of these were so similar that they must have been the same comet, and he accurately predicted its return in 1758 (see Halley's Comet)
Türkisch - Englisch
Definition von halley im Türkisch Englisch wörterbuch