2015 Event Philae, the comet lander that was deposited on Comet 67P last year, has awoken after several months in hibernation due to low power; scientists hope that the lander's power will last long enough for them to download data 2014 Event The European Space Agency makes history by landing a probe named Philae on the surface of a comet; scientists report that the probe anchors did not fire and that the vessel appears to have made two landings 2013 Event Experts observing the Comet ISON sweep 730,000 miles over the surface of the sun believe that that part of the comet survived the close encounter; images suggest a small nucleus may have remained intact 2006 Event Stardust space mission returns dust from a comet to earth 1997 Death Eugene Shoemaker, astronomer, co-discoverer of the Shoemaker-Levy comet that had a spectacular collision with Jupiter in 1994, dies at 69 1997 Event Comet Hale-Bopp Perihelion (0.914 AU) 1997 Event Comet Hale-Bopp Closest Approach to Earth (1.315 AU) 1997 Event Comet Hale-Bopp directly above the Sun (1.04 AU) 1997 Event Comet Shoemaker-Holt 2 Closest Approach to Earth (1.9245 AU) 1997 Event Comet Hale-Bopp crosses Mars' orbit 1997 Event 1st Comet of 1997 Discovered: Comet 1997 A1 1996 Event Comet C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake) approaches within 0.1018 AUs of Earth 1994 Event 23rd and last part of Comet Shoemaker-Levy hit Jupiter, since July 16th 1994 Event Major parts of Comet Shoemaker-Levy hit Jupiter (July 16th-22nd) 1994 Event Comet Shoemaker-Levy collides with Jupiter 1994 Event 1st parts of Comet Shoemaker-Levy hits Jupiter (until July 22nd) 1994 Event Comet Shoemaker-Levy collides with Jupiter 1993 Event Jean Mueller discovers comet Mueller/1993a 1992 Event Tsuruhiko Kiuchi discovers comet Swift-Tuttle 1992 Event David Lewett and Jane Luu discovers comet: "1992 QB1" 64 mil km from Sun 1992 Event Spaceship Giotto, Halley 1986, approaches comet Grigg-Skjellerup 1989 Event Comet Churyunov-Gerasimenko at perihelion 1989 Event Comet du Toit at perihelion 1989 Event Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 at perihelion 1989 Event Comet Tempel 1 at perihelion 1986 Event Halley's Comet makes closest approach to Earth this trip, 63 M km 1986 Event European Space Agency's Giotto flies by Halley's Comet (605 km) 1986 Event Japanese probe Sakigake flies by Halley's Comet at 6.8 million km 1986 Event Soviet probe Vega 2 flies by Halley's Comet at 8,030 km 1986 Event Japanese probe Suisei passes Halley's Comet at 109,800 km 1986 Event U.S.S.R.'s Vega 1 flies by Halley's Comet at 8,889 km 1986 Event Halley's Comet reaches 30th perihelion (closest approach to Sun) 1985 Event Flyby of Comet Giacobini-Zinner 1985 Event Japan launches its 2nd probe of Halley's Comet, Suisei 1985 Event Suisei Launch (Halley's Comet Flyby) 1985 Event Japan launches Planet A, a probe to Halley's comet 1985 Event European Space Agency launches Giotto (Halley's Comet Flyby) 1985 Event En route to Halley's Comet, U.S.S.R.'s Vega 2 drops lander on Venus 1985 Event Japan launches Sakigake space probe to Halley's Comet 1985 Event Japanese space probe Sakigake launched to Halley's comet 1984 Event U.S.S.R. launches Vega 1 for rendezvous with Halley's Comet 1984 Event David Levy finds his 1st comet 1983 Event Comet C/1983 (Sugano-Saigusa-Fujikawa) approaches 0.0628 AUs of Earth 1983 Event Comet C/1983 H1 (IRAS-Araki-Alcock) approaches 0.0312 AUs of Earth 1982 Event Mount Palomar Observatory 1st to detect Halley's comet on 13th return 1979 Event Comet Howard-Koomur-Michels collides with Sun 1973 Event 1st picture of a comet from space (Comet Kohoutek-Skylab) 1973 Event Comet Kohoutek at perihelion 1973 Event Comet (Lubos) Kohoutek discovered at Hamburg Observatory 1970 Event Chartered Dan-Air Comet crashes into mountains north of Barcelona, Spain killing 112 vacationing Britons 1961 Event Comet C/1961 T1 (Seki) approaches within 0.1019 AUs of Earth 1953 Event Canadian Comet crashes at Karachi, 11 killed 1952 Event 1st scheduled jet airliner passenger service began with a BOAC Comet 1951 Birthday Ace Frehley, born in Bronx, New York, heavy metal rocker, Kiss-Beth, Frehley's Comet 1949 Event 1st jet-propelled airline, De Havilland Comet, flies 1930 Event Comet 73P/1930 (Schwassmann-Wachmann 3) approaches 0.0617 AUs of Earth 1927 Event Comet 7P/Pons-Winnecke approaches within 0.0394 AUs of Earth 1910 Event Passage of Earth through tail of Halley's Comet causes near-panic 1910 Event Comet Halley's closest approach to Earth in 1910 pass 1910 Event Halley's Comet passes 29th recorded perihelion at 87.9 million km 1910 Event Halley's comet seen by naked eye 1st time this trip (Curacao) 1909 Event Max Wolf rediscovers Halley's comet 1908 Event Giant fireball impacts in Siberia (Tunguska Event) (Enckes comet) 1900 Event Giacobini discovers a comet (will be 1st comet visited by spacecraft) 1865 Death Johann F Encke, German astronomer (Comet Encke), dies at 73 1864 Event Comet C/1864 N1 (Tempel) approaches within 0.0964 AUs of Earth 1864 Event Spectrum of a comet observed for 1st time, by Giovanni Donati 1861 Event Leipzig Observatory discovers short-period (6.2 yrs) Comet d'Arrest 1858 Event Donati's comet becomes 1st to be photographed 1858 Event Donati Comet 1st seen named after it's discoverer 1853 Event Comet C/1853 G1 (Schweizer) approaches within 0.0839 AUs of Earth 1847 Event Maria Mitchell discovers a non-naked-eye comet 1847 Event German astronomer Theodor discovers Comet Brorsen-Metcalf 1826 Event M Biela, an Austrian officer, discovers Biela's Comet 1819 Event William Herschel makes last telescopic observation of 1819 comet 1817 Death Charles Messier, "comet ferret" and catalogs famous "M objects,", dies 1805 Event Comet 3D/1805 V1 (Biela) approaches within 0.0366 AUs of Earth 1801 Event French astronomer Jean-Louis Pons discovers his 1st comet 1797 Event Comet C/1797 P1 (Bouvard-Herschel) approaches 0.0879 AUs of Earth 1791 Birthday Johann F Encke, German astronomer, Encke Comet 1785 Event Caroline Herschel becomes 1st woman discoverer of a comet 1781 Event Sir William Herschel sees "comet" (really discovered Uranus) 1760 Event Comet C/1760 A1 (Great comet) approaches within 0.0682 AUs of Earth 1759 Event 27th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet 1758 Event Halley's comet 1st sighted by Johann Georg Palitzsch during return 1743 Event Comet C/1743 C1 approaches within 0.0390 AUs of Earth 1723 Birthday J G Palitzsch, 1st saw Halley's comet on return, Prolitz 1702 Event Comet C/1702 H1 approaches within 0.0437 AUs of Earth 1682 Event English astronomer Edmund Halley sees his namesake comet 1680 Event Hen in Rome lays an egg imprinted with comet not seen until Dec 16th 1679 Event Great panic occurs in Europe over close approach of a comet 1656 Birthday Edmund Halley, English astronomer, comet of Halley 1456 Event 23rd recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet 1366 Event Comet 55P/1366 U1 (Tempel-Tuttle) approaches 0.0229 AUs of Earth 1264 Event Comet said to predict death of Pope Urban IV is last seen 1145 Event 19th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet 1066 Event 18th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet 1061 Event Halley's Comet sparks English monk to predict country'll be destroyed 837 Event Best view of Halley's Comet in 2000 years 837 Event Comet 1P/837 F1 (Halley) approaches within 0.0334 AUs of Earth 837 Event 15th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet 760 Event 14th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet 607 Event Comet 1P/607 H1 (Halley) approaches within 0.0898 AUs of Earth 607 Event 12th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet 451 Event 10th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet 374 Event Comet 1P/374 E1 (Halley) approaches within 0.0884 AUs of Earth 374 Event 9th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet 295 Event 8th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet 218 Event 7th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet 141 Event 6th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet 66 Event 5th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet
