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Ancient Greeks spotted Halley's comet
NewsScientist ^ | 09 Sep 2010 | Jo Marchant

Posted on 09/10/2010 5:37:03 AM PDT by Palter

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1 posted on 09/10/2010 5:37:05 AM PDT by Palter
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To: SunkenCiv

Halley, greek, ping.


2 posted on 09/10/2010 5:37:32 AM PDT by Palter (If voting made any difference they wouldn't let us do it. ~ Mark Twain)
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To: Palter

duh.........


3 posted on 09/10/2010 5:38:36 AM PDT by Sacajaweau (What)
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To: Palter

Greek fire....in the sky bump.


4 posted on 09/10/2010 5:54:14 AM PDT by dangerdoc
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To: Palter
I don't know if they were Greek or not.


5 posted on 09/10/2010 5:55:20 AM PDT by WakeUpAndVote
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To: Palter

Proving, once again, that astrophysics is all Greek to me.


6 posted on 09/10/2010 5:59:24 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy
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To: Palter
The bigger question is what did they do with that "wagonload" sized meteorite?

After 500 years, they figured out how to melt/hammer it down and make fine edged weapons?

7 posted on 09/10/2010 6:12:15 AM PDT by Deaf Smith
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To: Deaf Smith

That was my first question too!


8 posted on 09/10/2010 6:14:14 AM PDT by Constitution Day
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To: Palter

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.


9 posted on 09/10/2010 6:32:10 AM PDT by bunkerhill7
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To: Constitution Day

Is that where Damascus Steel came from? From bits of the meteorite that were traded?


10 posted on 09/10/2010 6:32:45 AM PDT by Deaf Smith
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To: Deaf Smith

They sold a chunk of it to a passing camel caravan and told them it was “from God”.


11 posted on 09/10/2010 6:38:50 AM PDT by Boogieman
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To: Boogieman
Sort of like the apes in 2001 Space Odyssey?
12 posted on 09/10/2010 6:42:14 AM PDT by Deaf Smith
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To: Palter
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 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.

13 posted on 09/10/2010 6:45:54 AM PDT by GreenHornet
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To: Deaf Smith

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.


14 posted on 09/10/2010 7:20:39 AM PDT by Constitution Day
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To: Deaf Smith
Who knows. Very curious though. Some previous use of a meteorite. The famous Tucson Ring.

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

15 posted on 09/10/2010 10:02:12 AM PDT by Palter (If voting made any difference they wouldn't let us do it. ~ Mark Twain)
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To: 75thOVI; aimhigh; Alice in Wonderland; AndrewC; aragorn; aristotleman; Avoiding_Sulla; BBell; ...
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.
 
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16 posted on 09/10/2010 6:25:53 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Democratic Underground... matters are worse, as their latest fund drive has come up short...)
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To: Palter; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 21twelve; 240B; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; 31R1O; ...

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Thanks Palter, nice find!.
... a meteorite the size of a "wagonload" crashed into northern Greece sometime between 466 and 468 BC... Philosopher Daniel Graham and astronomer Eric Hintz of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, modelled the path that Halley's comet would have taken... 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... 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.
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17 posted on 09/10/2010 6:27:23 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Democratic Underground... matters are worse, as their latest fund drive has come up short...)
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To: ClearCase_guy

/bravo


18 posted on 09/10/2010 6:35:13 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Democratic Underground... matters are worse, as their latest fund drive has come up short...)
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To: Deaf Smith; Constitution Day; bunkerhill7; Boogieman; GreenHornet; Palter

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


19 posted on 09/10/2010 6:38:37 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Democratic Underground... matters are worse, as their latest fund drive has come up short...)
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets

http://www.ibiblio.org/lunar/school/solar_system/minecarb.html


20 posted on 09/10/2010 6:40:19 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Democratic Underground... matters are worse, as their latest fund drive has come up short...)
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