00:00You may have seen debris from Halley's Comet burning up in our atmosphere and not even
00:05known it.
00:06So 40 years ago, Halley's or Halley's Comet streaked across the sky, making history and
00:12lasting memories for observant sky watchers.
00:14But what is it?
00:15And how are we still seeing fireballs from the comet decades later?
00:20So Halley's Comet is a comet that, in the icy outer regions of our solar system, orbits
00:25the Sun roughly every 76 years, though that can vary.
00:28That means that about every 76 years, the comet visits the inner solar system and people
00:33on Earth looking up at the night sky might see the comet streaking by.
00:37In fact, there are records that indicate that humans have been looking at Halley's Comet
00:41for possibly thousands of years, though it wasn't until 1705 that the astronomer Edmund Halley
00:48figured out that this was the same object visiting our skies over all of these years.
00:53That's where the comet got its name.
00:54Now, the last time Halley's Comet was seen in the night sky was 1986, and we won't see
00:59it again until mid-2061.
01:02But, while we won't see Halley's Comet again until 2061, every year we see pieces of it
01:08burning up in our atmosphere.
01:10So what's going on there?
01:11Now, every year around October, though sometimes into November, fantastical displays of shooting
01:17stars speckle the night sky during the Orionids meteor shower.
01:21These shooting stars are actually pieces of debris from material trailing Halley's Comet,
01:26and every year at this time, Earth passes through the comet's tail in our orbit around the sun,
01:32and these little pieces of debris burn up in our atmosphere, creating the shooting stars.
01:38And this isn't the only time that our planet finds itself passing through the comet's debris
01:42trail.
01:43Again, in the spring, around April to May, we get to experience the Etta Aquariids meteor
01:48shower, also from Halley's Comet's debris.
01:51And while the Orionids are great, the Etta Aquariids are often even more spectacular of
01:57a show.
01:58I know.
01:59Now, rewinding a little, what was so different about Halley's visit in 1986 was that we had
02:05incredibly advanced telescopes on Earth and spacecraft looking at the comet.
02:09So, after thousands of years of humans looking up at the strange, bright object in their sky,
02:14this was the first time we got a really good look.
02:17Now, the first spacecraft to really see the comet's structure was the European Space Agency's
02:22Giotto mission.
02:23In fact, Giotto was designed to get as close as possible to Halley's Comet, to photograph,
02:28and to study it.
02:29And this was just one of a handful of different spacecraft that were able to get a good, close
02:34look at the comet.
02:35This not only gave us a really good view of this specific comet, but it helped scientists
02:40to better understand comets as a whole.
02:43All right.
02:43That is all that I have today on Halley's Comet.
02:46And we might not see it again until 2061, but we can enjoy the show that it puts on in
02:51the night sky.
