Halley’s Comet is furthest from the Sun on December 9th 2023

Possibly the most famous comet, it was observed by Edmond Halley in 1682 who realised that it seemed similar to the comets of 1531 and 1607. He predicted it would return in 1758, Halley himself died in 1742,. Then on Christmas night 1758 the comet was seen right on schedule. It has since been known as Halley’s comet.

Although on average it takes 76 years to orbit the Sun, the orbit of comet Halley can vary between 75 to 79 years.

A comet is really like a giant snowball travelling around the Sun, as it approaches the Sun it heats up, and gas and ice are melted off the comet producing the wonderful tail that people associate with comets.

As a comets travels around the Sun it leaves a trail of dust behind it. If the Earth happens to pass through any of these dust streams we see what astronomers call a meteor shower. There are several well known ones each year. Meteors or shooting stars as they are often referred to are grains of comet dust burning up in the Earth’s atmosphere.

The Earth passes through the stream of dust left behind by comet Halley not one but twice a year. In May we have the Eta Aquarid meteor shower and in October we see the Orionid meteor shower. If you see any meteors from these showers you are looking at tiny grains of dust from comet Halley burning up in the Earth’s atmosphere.

So on December 9^th 2023 comet Halley is at its furthest point from the Sun in its orbit. A point that is referred to by astronomers as its point of Aphelion. In fact at the moment Halley’s comet is actually beyond the orbit of the planet Neptune.

After that it will begin its journey back to the inner solar system reaching its closest point or Perihelion point to the Sun on July 28^th 2061

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