Question about Halley's Comet

[Malacandra]

@Arkcon

Eventually, comets do break down. A children’s book once related a periodic comet, that eventually broke into twin comets, after a few more passes, one of the twins seemed dimmer, the next pass, the comet was replaced by a meteor shower. I don’t know the name of the comet, that became a twin, that became a meteor shower, however.

Arthur Mee’s Children’s Encyclopaedia, no?

[Colophon]

@TroutMan

Slight hijack, but for you people disappointed by Halley’s comet, keep your fingers crossed for Comet ISON, discovered a couple weeks ago and scheduled to pass by late next year. Some optimists are estimating it will be brighter than the moon and visible during the day.

I can imagine the apocalyptic YouTube woo being frantically prepared even as we speak (they must have been so disappointed when Elenin broke up rather than slamming into the Earth or stepping aside to reveal a spacecraft full of alien beings from Planet X…)

[Xema]

@davekhps

Hale-Bopp sure was a pleasant view.

And Comet McNaught (technically C/2006 P1, or “the Great Comet of 2007”) was simply superb - though you had to be in the southern hemisphere to best appreciate it.

[Jake]

@core_dump

Nitpick 3: “Its”

Nice catch! I’ve always had trouble with “It”.
But how do you make it possessive?

[Chronos]

Quoth awb:

To address the OP: I once heard that a comet gets about 100 passes thru the inner solar system. So, after whatever time Halley’s Comet got gravitationally knocked into its current orbit, it’ll have its last pass thru about 7,600 years after that.

Of course, that was 40 years ago I read that. Cometary science may have a different theory now.

There’s not a timer attached to each comet that counts down-- Rather, each and every pass through the inner solar system has a chance of throwing it into a different orbit. So, when Halley first came through, its “expected lifespan” would have been about 8000 years or whatever, but it could have happened on its first or second visit, if it were unlucky. Now that it has survived for as long as it has, the expected lifespan is that amount of time from now.

[Malacandra]

@Jake

Nice catch! I’ve always had trouble with “It”.
But how do you make it possessive?

“It” is one of the rare English pronouns that has a distinct possessive instead of taking the apostrophe-s. Others are “he/his” and “she/her(s)”.

[Jake]

@Malacandra

“It” is one of the rare English pronouns that has a distinct possessive instead of taking the apostrophe-s. Others are “he/his” and “she/her(s)”.

Yes! I understand now. My ignorance has been fought! Thanks…

[Clothahump]

We took the kids down on the beach with a telescope to see Comet Halley. It took some serious searching, but we finally found it. I will remember it until the day I die. Their response? “Is that all?”