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Asked by anon-253072 to Julian on 12 May 2020.
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Julian Onions answered on 12 May 2020:
Halley’s comet will next come around and be visible in 2061, so a few years yet. Last time it came past it wasn’t very impressive, so not sure what it will be like next time. As they go around the sun they lose ice and dust, so get a bit smaller each time, but they are quite large so they can last quite a few passes.
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Comments
Helena commented on :
Like Julian said the next time Halley will come around will be in 2061. Halleys comet is really awesome because its been spotted in records for over 2000 years as it returns in close to Earth approximately every 70 years. There’s records of it all over human history! Its been stitched into the Bayeaux tapestry which covers the Norman invasion of the England, theres rumours that seeing it in the sky inspired Genghis Khan to go on and invade Europe, and its been incorporated into paintings loads of times. It was the first comet that scientists managed to properly observe, and the Russians actually sent a spacecraft to observe it in 1986. Its played a big part in developing solar system science!
John commented on :
You might see it a bit sooner with a big telescope. Dave Jewitt (who I know) and Ed Danielson (who I don’t) found Halley in 1982, 3 years before its closest approach. Of course to them it was just a tiny dot in a telescope. For the next appearance (or apparition as we call it) we will have 30-40m telescopes on the ground and so should be able to pick it up as a faint moving dot some years before 2061.
John commented on :
So I did a bit of ‘back of the envelope’ maths on this. The European Extremely Large Telescope will not initially have a camera that takes pictures in ordinary light, but it will have a near infrared imager a while after it starts operating. Using this, and making a few guesses about how good ELT will be I think you might see Halley by 2040 when its magnitude will be between 28 and 29 in visible light (that is seriously faint) if you got to use the ELT for 1hour and are looking in just the right place. By 2050 Halley will be magnitude 27, so a bit easier to see with a very large telescope..