In 466 B.C., shooting stars fell over ancient Greece, a meteorite hit the ground in broad daylight and a comet appeared in the sky. After extensive research, two BYU professors now say it could have been the famous Halley’s comet.
Physics and astronomy professor Eric Hintz and philosophy professor Daniel Graham recently determined the cosmic activity over Greece in 466 B.C. coincided with the expected path and time of arrival of Halley’s comet.
If the heavenly apparition seen by the ancient Greeks was indeed Halley’s comet, the finding, published in the Journal of Cosmology, would push back the date of its first documented observation by more than 200 years.
Working together, Graham conducted historical research while Hintz used computer modeling to reconstruct the comet’s path. Even though Halley’s comet appears about every 75 years, gravitational disturbances can speed up or slow down the comet’s orbit by a few years—a fact taken into consideration during the modeling.
The research also built upon existing models, focusing not only on the comet’s path but also on its visibility. The professors discovered that in 466 B.C. Halley’s comet would have been visible to the Greeks for about 75 days.
They also concluded that the comet’s tail would have been very large and could have been responsible for the reported shooting stars as debris shed from it fell through the Earth’s atmosphere. But Hintz is quick to say the research does not show the comet was definitely Halley’s.
“I think the solution we present is a nice, complete story that fits the ancient descriptions,” he said,” but there are so many ways that Halley’s comet could have been disturbed in its orbit.”
Still, the finding has gained international attention, and the research behind it was something Hintz said he enjoyed.
“It was a fun project,” he said. “I didn’t think it would get the kind of response that it did.”