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Imagine being a poor 13-year old boy living in France in 1744 and observing a 6-tailed comet in the daytime. What aspirations might that have generated in a teenager?
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Comets, once considered portents of doom, have long puzzled us. They move rapidly against the starry background. They grow tails, which may explain why the ancient Greeks called them “hairy stars.” Their brightness and even their exact paths can be hard to predict. So, what are these mysterious visitors that sometimes appear in our sky?
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Have you ever seen a comet? In coming weeks we may have a chance to see two interesting comets. Comets are small, irregularly shaped bodies of ice and…
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This is the third in a series on Women in Astronomy. Today, we meet Caroline Herschel.Caroline Herschel was born in Hanover, Germany in 1750. Her early…