| − | [[Image:Halley Bayeux.jpg|left|150px]]Comets as a class were known to the ancients, and some of the most prominent and regularly appearing comets observed today appear in ancient records. For example, [[China|Chinese]] records mention a recurrent comet beginning in 240 BC. That comet is most likely Comet Halley, whose discoverer, [[Edmond Halley]], was the first to predict a comet's reappearance in advance. Comet Halley also appeared on April 24, 1066, to astounded onlookers in [[England]] prior to the conquest of England by the Normans, as depicted in the Tapestry of Bayeux.<ref name=Bayeux>Crack, Glen Ray. "[http://www.hastings1066.com/bayhi3a.shtml Bayeux Tapestry Highlights Part 3, Image 1]." <http://www.hastings1066.com/>, January 10, 1998. Retrieved July 20, 2008.</ref> | + | [[Image:Halley Bayeux.jpg|left|150px]]Comets as a class were known to the ancients, and some of the most prominent and regularly appearing comets observed today appear in ancient records. For example, [[China|Chinese]] records mention a recurrent comet beginning in 240 BC. That comet is most likely Comet Halley, whose discoverer, Edmond Halley, was the first to predict a comet's reappearance in advance. Comet Halley also appeared on April 24, 1066, to astounded onlookers in [[England]] prior to the conquest of England by the Normans, as depicted in the Tapestry of Bayeux.<ref name=Bayeux>Crack, Glen Ray. "[http://www.hastings1066.com/bayhi3a.shtml Bayeux Tapestry Highlights Part 3, Image 1]." <http://www.hastings1066.com/>, January 10, 1998. Retrieved July 20, 2008.</ref> |
| | In fact, comets have been observed for far longer in history. The ancient [[Greece|Greeks]] called them "evil stars," which in Greek is ''dys'' evil and ''astron'' a star. This is the origin of the modern word ''disaster''. The association of comets with untoward events or prophecies continued as recently as the twentieth century, when Comet Halley made an unusually close rendezvous with [[earth]].<ref name=Newburn>Newburn, Ray. "[http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news90.html NASA's Blazing the Trail to Understand Comets]." [[JPL]], [[NASA]], November 21, 2003. Accessed July 20, 2008.</ref> | | In fact, comets have been observed for far longer in history. The ancient [[Greece|Greeks]] called them "evil stars," which in Greek is ''dys'' evil and ''astron'' a star. This is the origin of the modern word ''disaster''. The association of comets with untoward events or prophecies continued as recently as the twentieth century, when Comet Halley made an unusually close rendezvous with [[earth]].<ref name=Newburn>Newburn, Ray. "[http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news90.html NASA's Blazing the Trail to Understand Comets]." [[JPL]], [[NASA]], November 21, 2003. Accessed July 20, 2008.</ref> |