Halley's Comet Through History
Students follow Halley's Comet through history, from ancient records and the Bayeux Tapestry to Edmond Halley's 1705 prediction, its 1758 return, the 1910 tail passage, the Giotto flyby in 1986 and its next return in 2061, and see how it confirmed Newton's laws of gravity.
Grades 5-8About 15 minutes of narrated flight, plus discussion stops9 stops
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What students will see and do
Students fly between Earth, the Sun, the comet itself, Jupiter (whose gravity shifts the comet's timing) and the region past Neptune where the comet turns around. Aetherion pauses for discussion at Earth (why the Bayeux Tapestry and other old records matter), near the Sun (why testable predictions matter in science) and at the comet (whether Giotto's risky flyby was worth it).
Learning objectives
- Describe how Edmond Halley used old records and Newton's laws to predict the comet's return.
- Explain why the comet's 1758 return was important evidence for Newton's theory of gravity.
- Identify key moments in the comet's history: 1066, 1758, 1910, 1986 and 2061.
- Predict how the comet's speed changes as it moves between the region past Neptune and the Sun.
NGSS connections
| MS-ESS1-2 | Students explain how gravity controls the comet's long elliptical orbit and how Jupiter and Saturn shifted the timing of its return. |
|---|---|
| MS-ESS1-1 | Students use a repeating pattern in the sky, the comet's roughly 76-year cycle, to make and test predictions. |
| MS-ETS1-1 | Students consider the design challenge of sending Giotto through a dusty coma at high speed. |
Stops on this journey
- A Visitor Seen for Ages
- The Comet on the Cloth (discussion stop)
- Edmond Halley's Big Idea (discussion stop)
- Christmas Night, Seventeen Fifty Eight
- The Tug of the Giants
- Nineteen Ten: Through the Tail
- Giotto Flies Into the Cloud (discussion stop)
- Turning Around Past Neptune
- Coming Home in Twenty Sixty One
Vocabulary
- comet
- nucleus
- orbit
- ellipse
- prediction
- coma
- aphelion
- meteor shower