Posted on 09/10/2010 5:37:03 AM PDT by Palter
A CELESTIAL event in the 5th century BC could be the earliest documented sighting of Halley's comet - and it marked a turning point in the history of astronomy.
According to ancient authors, from Aristotle onwards, a meteorite the size of a "wagonload" crashed into northern Greece sometime between 466 and 468 BC. The impact shocked the local population and the rock became a tourist attraction for 500 years.
The accounts describe a comet in the sky when the meteorite fell. This has received little attention, but the timing corresponds to an expected pass of Halley's comet, which is visible from Earth every 75 years or so.
Philosopher Daniel Graham and astronomer Eric Hintz of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, modelled the path that Halley's comet would have taken, and compared this with ancient descriptions of the comet (Journal of Cosmology, vol 9, p 3030). For example, the comet was said to be visible for 75 days, accompanied by winds and shooting stars, and in the western sky when the meteorite fell.
The researchers show that Halley's comet would have been visible for a maximum of 82 days between 4 June and 25 August 466 BC. From 18 July onwards, a time of year characterised in this region by strong winds, it was in the western sky. At around this time, the Earth was moving under the comet's tail, so its debris field would have made shooting stars.
None of this proves the comet's identity, but Graham says such major comet sightings are rare, so Halley must be a "strong contender". Previously, the earliest known sighting of Halley was made by Chinese astronomers in 240 BC.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
Halley, greek, ping.
duh.........
Greek fire....in the sky bump.
Proving, once again, that astrophysics is all Greek to me.
After 500 years, they figured out how to melt/hammer it down and make fine edged weapons?
That was my first question too!
According to ancient authors, from Aristotle onwards, a meteorite the size of a “wagonload” crashed into northern Greece sometime between 466 and 468 BC. They beat their wagonload of plowshares into swords and spears.
Is that where Damascus Steel came from? From bits of the meteorite that were traded?
They sold a chunk of it to a passing camel caravan and told them it was “from God”.
The ancient Greeks then went on to speculate that the proliferation of large wagons on the streets of Greece were the cause of this incident, and were contributing to global warming. Unless such wagons were outlawed, it was feared that life as they knew it would vanish by 325 B.C.
I don’t know about that! I was under the impression that Damascas steel techniques were thought to have originally come from India.
I saw something on the History Channel about that once.
Replica of the Tucson Ring used as an anvil
In 1850 one fragment of the meteorite was taken to the Mexican presidio in Tucson - the blacksmith there used the Ring meteorite as an anvil - the widest part was used as a work surface
According to ancient authors, from Aristotle onwards, a meteorite the size of a "wagonload" crashed into northern Greece sometime between 466 and 468 BC. The impact shocked the local population and the rock became a tourist attraction for 500 years.Thanks Palter! A nice two-list topic. Aristotle for his part continuously denied that stones could fall from the sky, claiming quite pontifically that such reports were attributable to two causes -- one, ignorant unschooled rural buffoons, and two, stones lifted by the winds from elsewhere on the Earth's surface.
 |
||
| · join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post new topic · subscribe · | ||
|
· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic · subscribe · |
|||
Antiquity Journal & archive Archaeologica Archaeology Archaeology Channel BAR Bronze Age Forum Discover Dogpile Eurekalert LiveScience Mirabilis.ca Nat Geographic PhysOrg Science Daily Science News Texas AM Yahoo Excerpt, or Link only? |
|
||
|
· Science topic · science keyword · Books/Literature topic · pages keyword · |
|||
/bravo
It’s unlikely that rocks coming down from Halley’s Comet would be made of pure iron.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chondrite
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbonaceous_chondrite
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
