Word: halley
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Since before the dawn of history, Halley's comet has been returning to the vicinity of earth every 76 years or so, intriguing and sometimes bedazzling + earthbound stargazers. Last week marked a turning point...
...This is the first time we've gone to the comet," said Carl Sagan. The Cornell University astronomer was one of about 100 foreign scientists who gathered at Moscow's Institute of Space Research to observe the eagerly awaited rendezvous of the Soviet spacecraft Vega 1 with Halley's comet. At 2:30 a.m. (EST) on March 6, as Vega passed within 5,300 miles of Halley's nucleus and as images of the legendary comet flashed on television screens at the institute, Sagan joined the other foreign scientists in applause, while Soviet scientists and technicians hugged and kissed...
...comet's coma and nucleus, and send the images and other data back to earth.* It also served as the advance guard for four other craft -- the Soviet Vega 2, the Japanese Suisei and Sakigake, and the European Space Agency's Giotto -- that were to sweep by Halley's in the following week...
...data used to create the image had arrived in California by an unusual route. Looking for ways to view Halley's comet at perihelion, Ames scientists had hit upon the idea of using the Pioneer 12 spacecraft, which has been orbiting Venus since December 1978, surveying the planet with an array of instruments. Around the time of Halley's perihelion, they realized, Venus--and thus Pioneer--would be in position to have a direct view of the comet. Late in December the scientists ordered the spacecraft to pivot 90 degrees and point its ultraviolet scanner at the comet...
Pioneer will continue to observe Halley's, measuring water loss and looking for oxygen, carbon, sulfur and other elements in the coma's gases, until March 6, when the sun will begin blocking the Venusian view of the comet. On that day, however, the first of an international flotilla of spacecraft will take over Halley's vigil. The Soviet probe Vega 1 will fly through the coma, passing within 6,000 miles of the nucleus. It will be followed by another Soviet craft, two Japanese probes, and the European Space Agency's Giotto, which will make the most daring pass...