* 1986 – The Soviet Vega 1 begins returning images of Halley's Comet and the first images of its nucleus.

Observations by D. W. Hughes suggest that Halley's nucleus has been reduced in mass by 80 – 90 % over the last 2000 – 3000 revolutions.

Despite the vast size of its coma, Halley's nucleus is relatively small: barely 15 kilometers long, 8 kilometers wide and perhaps 8 kilometers thick.

Given the irregular shape of the nucleus, Halley's rotation is likely to be complex.

The visible and near-infrared spectrum of Chiron is neutral, and is similar to that of C-type asteroids and the nucleus of Halley's Comet.

On 13 March 1986, the mission succeeded in approaching Halley's nucleus at a distance of 596 kilometers.

Images showed Halley's nucleus to be a dark peanut-shaped body, 15 km long, 7 km to 10 km wide.

Giotto found Halley's nucleus was blacker than coal, which suggested a thick covering of dust.

The small size of the nucleus ( Halley's Comet is about across, while Comet Hale – Bopp was about across ) implies that Hyakutake must have been very active to become as bright as it did.

This meteorite is believed to have been dislodged from a near-Earth orbit by the passing Halley's Comet.

He is credited by many with first popularizing this form of music in the early 1950s with his group Bill Haley & His Comets ( inspired by Halley's Comet ) and million selling hits such as, " Rock Around the Clock ", " See You Later Alligator ", and " Shake Rattle and Roll ".

During the Labor Day weekend in 1952, The Saddlemen were renamed Bill Haley with Haley's Comets ( inspired by a popular mispronunciation of Halley's Comet ), and in 1953, Haley's recording of " Crazy Man, Crazy " ( co-written by Haley and his bass player, Marshall Lytle although Lytle would not receive credit until 2001 ) became the first rock and roll song to hit the American charts, peaking at no. 15 on Billboard and no. 11 on Cash Box.

Such images were of higher resolution than the only previous pictures, of Halley's Comet taken by the Giotto spacecraft.

Bessel came to the attention of a major figure of German astronomy at the time, Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers, by producing a refinement on the orbital calculations for Halley's Comet.

The algorithm is first in the class of Householder's methods, succeeded by Halley's method.

According to one story that first appeared in a 1475 posthumous biography and was subsequently embellished and popularized by Pierre-Simon Laplace, Callixtus III excommunicated the 1456 apparition of Halley's Comet, believing it to be an ill omen for the Christian defenders of Belgrade from the besieging armies of the Ottoman Empire.

) In 1749 Richard Dunthorne confirmed Halley's suspicion after re-examining ancient records, and produced the first quantitative estimate for the size of this apparent effect: a centurial rate of + 10 " ( arcseconds ) in lunar longitude ( a surprisingly good result for its time, not far different from values assessed later, e. g. in 1786 by de Lalande, and to compare with values from about 10 " to nearly 13 " being derived about a century later.

* March 8 – The Japanese Suisei probe flies by Halley's Comet, studying its UV hydrogen corona and solar wind.

* Vega 1 – Balloon release into Venus atmosphere and lander ( joint mission with Vega 2 ), mothership continued on to fly by Halley's Comet

* June 9 – Halley's Comet makes an appearance, as noted by the humanist scholar Platina.

Halley's returns to the inner Solar System have been observed and recorded by astronomers since at least 240 BCE.

Halley's prediction of the comet's return proved to be correct, although it was not seen until 25 December 1758, by Johann Georg Palitzsch, a German farmer and amateur astronomer.

However, observations conducted around the time of Halley's Comet's appearance in 1986 suggest that the Eta Aquarid meteor shower might not originate from Halley's Comet, though it might be perturbed by the comet.

In 837, Halley's Comet may have passed as close as 0. 03 AU ( 3. 2 million miles ; 5. 1 million kilometers ) from Earth, by far its closest approach.

In the 18th century, a Frenchman further embellished the story, in anger at the Church, by claiming that the Pope had " excommunicated " Halley's Comet, though this story was most likely his own invention.

Halley's apparition of 1456 was also witnessed in Kashmir and depicted in great detail by Śrīvara, a Sanskrit poet and biographer to the Sultans of Kashmir.

Halley's approach was first detected by astronomers David Jewitt and G. Edward Danielson on 16 October 1982 using the 5. 1 m Hale telescope at Mount Palomar and a CCD camera.

Based on data retrieved by Astron, the largest ultraviolet space telescope of the time, during its Halley's Comet observations in December 1985, a group of Soviet scientists developed a model of the comet's coma.

Two Space Shuttle missions – the ill-fated STS-51-L ( ended by the Challenger disaster ) and STS-61-E – were scheduled to observe Halley's Comet from low Earth orbit.

The Giotto and Vega missions gave planetary scientists their first view of Halley's surface and structure.

* 1986 – The Giotto probe provides the first ever close up images of Halley's Comet.

Giotto was a European robotic spacecraft mission from the European Space Agency, intended to fly by and study Halley's Comet.

* Giotto di Bondone's ' Adoration of the Magi ' painting that includes his rendition of Halley's Comet

It became a part of the Halley Armada together with Suisei, the Soviet / French Vega probes, the ESA Giotto and the NASA International Cometary Explorer, to explore Halley's Comet during its 1986 sojourn through the inner solar system.

The European Space Agency used IDL to process almost all of the pictures of Halley's Comet taken by the Giotto spacecraft.

* Giotto ( spacecraft ), approached Halley's Comet in March 1986 ( made at Filton )

Giotto witnessed an appearance of Halley's Comet in 1301.

It constituted a part of the Halley Armada together with Sakigake, the Soviet / French Vega probes, the ESA Giotto and the NASA International Cometary Explorer, to explore Halley's Comet during its 1986 sojourn through the inner solar system.

He also participated in the planning of Giotto, the European Space Agency's mission to Halley's Comet, but died before the spacecraft was launched.

The spacecraft were equipped with a dual bumper shield for dust protection from Halley's comet.

The spacecraft were equipped with a dual bumper shield for dust protection from Halley's comet.

The spacecraft were equipped with a dual bumper shield for dust protection from Halley's Comet.

* March 8 – Japanese spacecraft Suisei flies by Halley's Comet, studying its UV hydrogen corona and solar wind.

On 20 March 1986, the spacecraft flew within 12. 3 million kilometers of Halley's Comet and monitored the interaction between the cometary hydrogen tail and the solar wind.