Halley 's heavenly body returns
For five years, astronomers have been scanning the skies to become the first to sight one of history's most celebrated objects. Last week a Caltech team led by British Graduate Student David C. Jewitt, 24, and Staff Astronomer G. Edward Danielson, 43, won the cosmic sweepstakes. Using Palomar Observatory's 200-in. telescope, they spotted Halley's comet as a faint moving dot in the constellation Canis Minor. The comet has not been seen since 1911. A year earlier, its fiery appearance caused a rash of doomsday forecasts and end-of-the-world parties.
More than a billion miles away, just beyond Saturn's orbit,...
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