Allia Parks

901-Manhattan

Physics

Opening Statement: did you ever wonder why do people make such a big fuss over
a rock? well i used to think that too until i was told to do a essay on something that
either intrigues me or i could learn from researching the topic. so i choose a topic
in which fell under both categories(intriguing and i could learn from it)in which will
hopefully turn out to a very informative to portray all in which i have learned.
Why Are Comets Important: comets are very important to scientists for they
even think they brought water and life on the this planet. and thats a biggie but if
you still don't get the importance of these rocks ill break it down for you.
basically,they contain some of the rarest elements on earth oldest entities in solar
system full of early substances.For centuries, scientists thought comets traveled
in the Earth's atmosphere. but in 1577, observations made by Danish astronomer
Tycho Brahe revealed they actually traveled far beyond the moon. Isaac Newton
later discovered that comets move in elliptical, oval-shaped orbits around the Sun,
periodic comets usually have elongated elliptical orbits. they will cause massive
destruction to all off earth as we know it if one ever hit earth.


What Different Religions and Regions Believed: many,different religions dealt
with this entity differently the most ancient known mythology, the Babylonian
"Epic of Gilgamesh," described fire, brimstone, and flood with the arrival of a
comet. Emperor Nero of Rome saved himself from the "curse of the comet" by
having all possible successors to his throne executed. in greece they believed that
the comets were a sign bad omens that it was a symbol of a floods or famines. they
thought it was a fiery messenger from the gods, harbinger of doom, or menace of
the universe. in other places such as greece they called them hairy stars. because
they thought the tail looked like a woman's head of hair streaming from the back.


How Did This Change Science: 1070-1080, The comet later designated Halley's
Comet is pictured in the Bayeux Tapestry, a chronicle of the Battle of Hastings of
1066. 1449-1450, Astronomers make one of the first known efforts to record the
paths of comets across the night sky it was groundbreaking. 1705 Edmond Halley
published that the comets of 1531, 1607, and 1682 are the same object and
predicts its return in 1758. The comet arrives on schedule and is later named
Halley's Comet for his groundbreaking discovery. 1986, An international fleet of
five spacecraft converges on comet Halley as it makes its regular (about every 76
years) pass through the inner solar system. 1994, the first observed planetary
impact by a comet, awed scientists watch as fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy
9 smash into Jupiter's atmosphere. 2001, Deep Space 1 flies by and photographs
comet Borrelly. 2004, NASA's Stardust spacecraft collects dust samples from
comet Wild 2 and images the nucleus which gave us a more vast understanding of
things in our solar system. 2005, The Deep Impact impactor collides with comet
Tempel 1 to enable scientists to study the interior of the nucleus. 2006, The
Stardust sample return capsule lands in Utah carrying cometary particles and
interstellar dust. 2009, Scientists announce that the amino acid glycine, a building
block of life, was collected by the Stardust spacecraft from comet Wild 2. 2010,
The Deep Impact spacecraft studies its second cometary target, Hartley 2, a
small, hyperactive comet. 2011, The Stardust spacecraft encounters Tempel 1 and
captures views of the Deep Impact impact site, the opposite side of the nucleus,
and evolution on the comet's surface. these small types discoveries really made big
changes, for they cause an accidental crush on jupiter letting us know that there
was more than just rocks and us that there was more to our solar system and that
it was an actual system:a bunch of small things working together to create one big
function. as you can see theres at least 200 thousand different rocks out there
making the galaxy sustaining life.


Closing Statement: this project really helped me grow in my understandings of
science and the way the most craziest things better our understandings of what
science really means and why we use it. and people make a big fuss over this rock
because it is an ground breaking discovery to something more vast in our mitts
more extinctive and more advanced with more history than ever so these rocks are
of grave importance to you and me for it holds the key to everything human. we are
very privileged to have great explorers like edmund halley to rebel against what
other say and strive to change things turn our eyes no matter how much they don't
want to accept it they'll still know what's going on and the truth is inevitable. so i
salute all in which did such and made stubborn people like me see their importance
and significance to us all.