Piecing together historic record and correlating it with the location of celestial objects nearly 2,500 years ago is an an epic task, but it can prove rather useful for interpreting ancient cosmic discoveries.
After some fascinating astronomical detective work, researchers have (possibly) found the first documented proof of a sighting of Halley's Comet two centuries earlier than when Chinese astronomers first described the famous 'dirty snowball' around 240 BC.
So, who beat the Chinese? The Greeks.
As reported by Physorg.com, researchers Daniel Graham and Eric Hintz from Brigham Young University at Provo in Utah have modeled the most likely path taken by the comet and found it was possibly visible around 466-467 BC for 82 days.As they delved into ancient texts prepared by Greek astronomers around that time, it coincided with a meteorite fall and a description of a comet in the sky for a period of 75 days. The fall occurred in the Hellespont region of northern Greece, something that became quite the tourist attraction for five centuries.
But was it Halley's comet they saw?
Graham and Hintz think so. Adding to the coincidental events, the ancient text also mentions a meteor shower. It seems logical that the Earth could have been passing through the debris field of Halley's at the time.
Read more at Discovery News
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