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To these days, several information related to comets have been reported by many civilizations. One of the earliest systematic records of comets were reported by the Chinese civilization in 467 BC, where the Kou Kin-ting informed that the comet tails always pointed away from the Sun. In Europe, many philosophers including Aristotle to postulate the association of comets with transient phenomena in the atmosphere of Earth. Ever since those ancient knowledge, middle-ages astronomers such as Tycho Brahe, Newton as well as Kepler put their interests in studying, observing and even recording the comets. However, the most important breakthrough about comet was reported by Edmund Halley.
English astronomer Edmund Halley compared the observed positions of bight stars on the celestial sphere with those found in Ptolemy’s Almagest. Ptolemy’s conclusion stated that three stars had changed position and were not in position of fixed in firmament. Therefore, he deduced the elliptic orbit of cometary movements around the sun, and he found that this is the same comet that orbits around the sun within a period of 75.5 years in 1682. Later, this comet is very popular with the name of Comet Halley. In 1758, his prediction became true as the comet appeared in that year, as well as in 1986. This also showed the world at that time that space objects have regular movements. Thus, comets become invaluable data revealing the true nature of the most primitive bodies in the solar system.
Due to his forecasting, modern astronomical team from former Soviet Union, Japan, Europe and the United States have been starting their interests to comets. In addition, an extensive network for ground-based comet observations was organized by NASA to coordinate the study of comet Halley. This program is called as International Halle Watch (IHW), proved to be successful in maintaining a high level of cometary research in all areas. The latest observation about comet was done to investigate the Rosetta Comet.