Word: araki
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...April 25 it was detected by the new U.S.-British-Dutch Infrared Astronomical Satellite IRAS. But the scientists were unaware of a rule requiring notification of the International Astronomical Union's central bureau of telegrams in Cambridge, Mass. Several days later, two dedicated amateur comet hunters, Genichi Araki, 28, a junior high school teacher in rural Japan, and George Alcock, 70, a retired teacher in Britain who has spotted three other new comets, identified the hazy blob in the sky and properly reported it. The astronomical establishment diplomatically honored all three claims by calling the comet IRAS-Araki-Alcock...
...American astronomers, who are still deeply disappointed by the failure of the U.S. to send off a probe to intercept the most famous comet of all, Halley's, when it returns in 1986, IRAS-Araki-Alcock was a gift from heaven. At close encounter, it appeared as a blurry patch, about three times the diameter of the full moon, near the bowl of the Big Dipper...
...most elated observer was undoubtedly Araki, who regularly scans the skies over his village in Niigata prefecture. "I've discovered a wonderful star," said the young bachelor. "Now I've got to discover a wonderful wife." Perhaps the comet was a propitious sign...