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| Comet C/1995 O1 (Hale–Bopp) was observed in April 1997 |
Long time ago, comets were considered as a bad luck. For some
civilizations, the existence of comets show death, prolonged plague, severe
drought, the death of the King or Queen. Many of them in the past associated
the coming of comets with something superstition. However, the breakthrough of
astronomy has led us to reveal the secrets laid on comets.
Based on the recent research, many scientists attempt to do
analyzing through the comets’ surface in addition to seek information through
the composition of those. And the observations have assumed that the ice
composition which has been freezing for million years contains unidentified and
unobservable matter remained untouchable since the solar system existed. For astronomers,
scientists and astrobiologists these untouchable matters are very precious
because who knows those contain message or the code to understand the universe.
Compared to these modern days, the observation of comets was
strictly neglected since it was considered as bad luck carrier. Until in 16th
century, a Danish astronomer, astrologer and alchemist name Tycho Brahe firstly
demonstrated the comet existed and its location is far away from the Earth’s
atmosphere. However, the observation of comets was very popular later a century
after Brahe’s demonstration.
Edmund Halley in 1600s was the clerk of the royal society in
England. He was an astronomer who dedicated himself for science. At that
moment, he visited the southern part of the Earth and set up an observation by
using large sextant – a navigation instrument which is able to measure the
angle created by two objects – which was attached to telescopic sights so he
was able to document the stars and their location in the southern hemisphere. Although
it was not a pure telescope, he and his colleague Johannes Hevellius was questioned
by Robert Hook because of its observation did not use the proper
instrumentation.
Halley was the first scientist who is interested to prove
the Kepler’s law of planetary motion. His curiosity led him to meet one of
genius scientist name Isaac Newton. Through his cooperation with Newton, they
published the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica. Based on this book,
Halley was able to predict the Kirch comet orbit which was observed by
Flamsteed although the year of existence was not accurately predicted. Interestingly,
Halley observed one comet which based on previous information came to the Earth
in 1456 and 1378. At that time, he was the only person who realized that comet
was the same come which appeared in that year. And his prophecy about this
comet, it will arrive frequently for 76 years.
Until that era, the observation of comets has been
conducting in many countries. And the development of instrumentation for
observing the comet has been developing. The Halley’s comet is the only comet
which can be seen with our normal eyes as for as we know currently. And today,
the Rosetta mission had able to land the space probe in the end of 2016 in
comet 67P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Surprisingly, there are so many comets had
been detected with several methods and one of those is by using the radio
detector.
Overall, comets were considered as bad luck for many
civilizations until the astronomy made those to become one of interesting
object. Comet’s observations led us to the prediction aspect in science and
technology which is in long time ago, many scientists never did that before. Furthermore,
comet could contain essential matter which can help us to understand the
universe because it is remained intact for millions of years.