First-Ever Halley Comet Sighting: It Was All Greek

Ancient Greeks may have observed Halley's comet fly by the earth some 226 years before the the existence of the most famous comet of them all was first recorded by Chinese or Babylonian observers.

Halley's Comet becomes visible to the unaided eye about every 76 years as it nears the sun.

/ Lick Observatory

Writing in the Journal of Cosmology, philosopher Donald Graham and astronomer Eric Hintz of Brigham Young University, reconstruct the comet's earliest probable sighting, which they say may have occurred in 466 BC, more than a couple of centuries before Chinese astronomers recorded a sighting of the comet in 240 BC.

How do they explain the abrupt shift of the time line? For starters, chalk it up to poor record-keeping.

"Whereas Babylonian and Chinese observers kept meticulous records of daily phenomena in the heavens for centuries, the Greeks do not seem to have kept similar records," they noted. "Hence it is not surprising that the Greeks have not furnished observational records with which to check the appearances of comets and the similar phenomena. Any records found in Greek sources are likely to be accidental in the sense of not arising from systematic habits."

What got the co-authors' attention was the mention of a comet falling somewhere in the Hellespont region of northern Greece, either in 466 or 467 BC. Hintz and Graham write that records from the time describe how the meteor fell even while a continued to burn in the sky. (It subsequently became a tourist attraction for the next 500 years.) However, most of the subsequent commentary focused on the meteor, giving the appearance of the comet relatively short shrift.

Fast forward to 1705. That's when Englishman Edmond Halley correctly predicted the return of a comet seen in 1682, which returned to pass by the Earth in 1758. Since then, scientists have been able to project backwards the comet's return trips, which typically take place every 75 to 76 years.

Using computer simulations Hintz and Graham suggest that what we now call Halley's comet might have been visible for about 80 days during the summer of 466 BC.

"It's tough going back that far in time. It's not like an eclipse, which is really predictable," Hintz told BBC News. "But we feel fairly good about this. If the [sighting] in 240BC is accepted, this has a fairly solid possibility..if accepted, this would be three orbits earlier [than the Chinese sighting]."

[schultz67]

I just saw Halley's comet! She waved.

[rf35]

"Hintz and Graham write that records from the time describe how the meteor fell even while a continued to burn in the sky."

While a WHAT continued to burn? Did they say comet or something else? CBS, please fire the illegal aliens that man your editing stations!! These constant typos and missing parts of articles are really getting annoying.


I too remember Halley, though I was quite young. The family made a long trip to some land my aunt owned way out in the eastern Colorado plains. It looked like a slight smudge through binoculars. I was very disappointed as it had been built up to be such a big event. Hale-Bopp came by while I was stationed in California and was more in line with what I had expected from Halley. Spectacular! Too bad it has such a long period. I might be around for another shot at Halley, but I doubt anything will compare to Hale-Bopp.

[Scimajor]

I remember Halley (pronounced Hah-lee not Hay-lee like the media was mispronouncing it at the time) as being a big disappointment also.

Comet brightness prediction is still in the realm of an art rather than a science. We still have allot of work to do to understand all the variables involved in comet brightness.

Hale-Bopp was the most spectacular naked eye comet event in my lifetime. Comet Holes was amazing for different reasons and the comet that slammed into Jupiter (Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9) was pretty breathtaking also.

We've been pretty lucky in comet terms.

[Lifeson2112]

Let this be a lesson. Always keep good records of your comet sightings. Incidentally I saw Halley's Comet in 1986. It was somewhat of a disappointment. Then in 1997 Hale-Bopp came blowing by and was amazing. You never know when one of these things will show up from the great beyond.