This Week in History: February 23-29

Ice and Stone 2020: Week 09 Content

Alan Hale February 22, 2020

FEBRUARY 23, 1988: David Levy obtains the final visual observation of Comet 1P/Halley during its 1986 return, using the 1.5-meter telescope at Catalina Observatory in Arizona. The comet was located 8.0 AU from the sun and appeared at 17th magnitude.

FEBRUARY 24, 1979: The U.S. Defense Department satellite P78-1 is launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. One of P78-1’s instruments was the SOLWIND coronagraph, which detected ten comets between 1979 and 1984, nine of which were Kreutz sungrazers and the first of these being the first comet ever discovered from space. SOLWIND continued to operate up until the time P78-1 was deliberately destroyed in September 1985 as part of an Anti-Satellite weapon (ASAT) test. The first SOLWIND comet is a future “Comet of the Week” and Kreutz sungrazers as a whole are the subject of a future “Special Topics” presentation.

The P78-1 (SOLWIND) satellite on the left before being launched into space. Courtesy NASA. On the right, Maj. Wilbert “Doug” Pearson successfully launched an anti-satellite, or ASAT, missile from a highly modified F-15A Sept. 13, 1985 over Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. and scored a direct hit on the satellite orbiting 340 miles, destroying SOLWIND. Courtesy USAF.

FEBRUARY 25, 1976: Comet West 1975n passes through perihelion at a heliocentric distance of 0.197 AU. Comet West, which is next week’s “Comet of the Week,” was one of the brightest comets that appeared during the second half of the 20th Century, and I personally consider it the best comet I have ever seen.

FEBRUARY 27, 1826: An Austrian army officer, Wilhelm von Biela, discovers a comet which is soon found to be identical to comets that appeared in 1772 and in 1805-06. Comet 3D/Biela, as this comet is now known, was last week’s “Comet of the Week” and is a classic example of a comet’s splitting into two and then disintegrating. It is the parent comet of the Andromedid meteor shower in November.

FEBRUARY 27, 1843: The Great Comet of 1843 passes through perihelion at a heliocentric distance of 0.006 AU. It was a Kreutz sungrazer and is a future “Comet of the Week;” Kreutz sungrazers as a whole are the subject of a future “Special Topics” presentation.

FEBRUARY 28, 1998: Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle passes through perihelion during its most recent return at a heliocentric distance of 0.977 AU. Comet Tempel-Tuttle is the parent comet of the Leonid meteor shower in November, which has produced some of the strongest showers in recorded history. The relationship between comets and meteor showers is the subject of a future “Special Topics” presentation.

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Comet of the Week Special Topic Bonus Content Free PDF Download Glossary

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About the author

Alan Hale

Alan Hale was born in Tachikawa, Japan (as the son of a U.S. Air Force officer) but moved with his family later soon after to Alamogordo, New Mexico, where he spent his childhood years. Hale entered the Navy and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy with a Bachelor’s Degree in Physics After leaving the service, he began working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on the Deep Space Network. While at JPL he was involved with several spacecraft projects, most notably the Voyager 2 encounter with the planet Uranus. Following that encounter, Hale left JPL and enrolled at New Mexico State University. He earned his Master’s Degree and then his Ph.D.. His thesis paper has become one of the seminal papers in early exoplanet research, with over 200 citations to date. He worked at the New Mexico Museum of Space History as its Staff Astronomer and Outreach Education Coordinator, before founding the Southwest Institute for Space Research (now known as the Earthrise Institute). He has developed and taught astronomy-related educational activities at the university level.
Hale’s research interests include the search for planets beyond the solar system; stars like the sun; minor bodies in the solar system, especially comets and near-Earth asteroids; and advocacy of spaceflight. He is primarily known for his work with comets, which has included his discovery of Comet Hale-Bopp in 1995. In recent years he has worked to increase scientific collaboration between the U.S. and other nations, including Iran, Zimbabwe, and Lebanon.
Hale lives in the Sacramento Mountains outside of Cloudcroft, New Mexico with his partner Vickie Moseley. He has two sons, Zachary and Tyler, both of whom have graduated from college. On clear nights he can often be found making observations of the latest comets or other astronomical phenomena.

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This Week in History: February 23-29

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More from Week 9:

Previous Comet of the Week: Whipple-Fedtke-Tevzadze 1942g

Next Finalists selected for naming NASA's next Mars rover

Alan Hale

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