Go and catch a falling star ...

Go and catch a falling star,
Get with child a mandrake root,
Tell me where all past years are,
Or who cleft the devil's foot,
Teach me to hear mermaids singing,
Or to keep off envy's stinging,
And find
What wind
Serves to advance an honest mind.

If thou be'st born to strange sights,
Things invisible to see,
Ride ten thousand days and nights,
Till age snow white hairs on thee,
Thou, when thou return'st, wilt tell me,
All strange wonders that befell thee,
And swear,
No where
Lives a woman true, and fair.

If thou find'st one, let me know,
Such a pilgrimage were sweet;
Yet do not, I would not go,
Though at next door we might meet;
Though she were true, when you met her,
And last, till you write your letter,
Yet she
Will be
False, ere I come, to two, or three.

John Donne

Tapijt van Bayeux

Komeet van Halley

De eerst bekende afbeelding van de komeet van Halley op het Tapijt van Bayeux uit 1068.
De komeet 1P/Halley, ook bekend als de komeet (van) Halley, is een van de bekendste en helderste periodieke kometen. De komeet is vernoemd naar Edmond Halley, die voor het eerst vaststelde dat kometen waarover in de geschiedenis geschreven was, volgens een bepaald patroon verschenen, zodat ze dezelfde komeet moesten zijn. Hij voorspelde dat de komeet in 1758 zou terugkeren.
Deze voorspelling klopte. De verschijning in 1758 was op Hawaii groot nieuws: daar werd de komeet gezien als de aankondiging van de aanstaande heerschappij van koning Kamehameha I.
De komeet Halley heeft een omlooptijd van ongeveer 76 jaar. De laatste passage van de aarde was in 1986, hoewel de komeet toen nauwelijks met het blote oog te zien was. In 2061 wordt de komeet Halley weer verwacht.
In 1986 passeerde de ruimtesonde Giotto de kern van de komeet. De beelden die Giotto doorstuurde, toonden voor het eerst de vorm van zo'n kern.

Bron :http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komeet_Halley

Giotto: close encounter

LAUNCH DATE: 02-Jul-1985 11:23 UT MISSION END: 23-July-1992 LAUNCH VEHICLE: Ariane 1 rocket (flight V14) LAUNCH MASS: 960 kg MISSION PHASE: Archive

ORBIT: Circular orbit inside the Earth's for five years, followed by a wider orbit outside the Earth's for another two years.

ACHIEVEMENTS: Europe's first deep space mission, first close-up images of a comet nucleus including Comet Halley, first spacecraft to encounter two comets and first deep space mission to change orbit by returning to Earth for a gravity assist.

THE MISSION:
ESA's first deep space mission, Giotto was designed to help solve the mysteries surrounding Comet Halley by passing as close as possible to the comet's nucleus, which it achieved on 13 March 1986. No-one expected the spacecraft to survive its battering from comet dust during this encounter, but although Giotto was damaged during the flyby, most of its instruments remained operational. The mission was extended to allow an unprecedented encounter with a second comet, Grigg-Skjellerup.


Bron: http://giotto.esa.int/science-e/www/area

Giotto - Adoration of the Magi

'Adoration of the Magi', one scene in a fresco cycle, painted by the Florentine master Giotto di Bondone. The cycle decorates the interior of the Scrovegnichapel in Padua and was probably begun in 1303. Halley's Comet appeared in 1301 and served as a model for Giotto's 'Star of Bethlehem'. ESA named its mission to Halley's Comet 'Giotto' in recognition of the fact that Giotto di Bondone made the first 'scientific' drawing of the comet recorded in history.

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Bron: http://giotto.esa.int/science-e/www/area

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