Halley's Comet

Halley's Comet

 My third quarter project is over Halley's Comet. Halley is a comet whose orbital period generally would last between 75-76 years around the sun. It is actually the only short period comet in our solar system that humans can actually see more than once with their own naked eye in an a single lifetime! Halley's comet is made of both different ices, (such as frozen water, carbon dioxide, ammonia and methane) mixed in with some dust. As it orbits around its path it leaves a beautiful trail composed of of both those gas and dust behind. One of the coolest and most amazing things about this comet is its orbital pattern around the sun. At its closest distance to the sun, Halley's comet travels in between the orbits of mercury and Venus and at its farthest distance it travels out to reach past Pluto's orbit within its 75 years of orbit in Solar System. This in turn would then have to mean that in order to achieve does large distances in such a short amount of time it has to travel at an average speed of 70.56 km/s (254,016 km/hr). Another Interesting thing about Halley would be that it orbital rotation around the sun is highly elliptical. This comet is so historical to mankind that its even been recordings of Halley’s comet since around 240 B.C!