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...
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