Comets at all times inspired fear in people. They always appeared very effectively, passed through the vault of heaven, leaving questions about what it was and what to expect now. Even today, when the nature of these objects has been clarified, many people are afraid of comets, believing that unhappiness may be associated with them or, in any case, something out of the ordinary will happen.
Most likely, the Christian star of Bethlehem is precisely a comet, and it portended the birth of Jesus Christ. The late appearance of other comets convinced people that they testified to something unusual. For example, Napoleon was sure that the comet of 1769 was nothing but a harbinger of his birth. Despite these events, as a rule, comets have been associated with catastrophes and incidents. For example, in 79 A.D. the eruption of Vesuvius occurred, destroying the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and this event occurred simultaneously with the appearance of the comet. The 1665 epidemic in London also coincided with the appearance of the comet, in 1835 a lot of terrible things happened, and the comet that appeared at that time was blamed for everything. The fact is that people, casting a glance at the sky, saw the stars, and they were all motionless. But bright comets quickly rushing across the sky could not but cause concern. It seemed to people that if one star behaves so eccentrically, then why shouldn't the others be so “eccentric" in the future. Heaven is falling, where is the order? Another strange luminous tail of the comet! All together it seemed either the beginning of the fall of heaven, or the divine portent of an impending catastrophe. True, there are situations when the Earth is really in danger. For example, in the recent past, Halley's comet passed very close to Earth. The question of how likely it is to collide with our planet was discussed quite seriously. Despite the fact that such an outcome was very unlikely, even a small opportunity already scared people. The first mention of comets in historical documents dates back to 2296 BC. The Chinese astronomers who recorded this information believed that the state of affairs in heaven is similar to what is happening on Earth. The brightest stars are rulers and officials, and the smaller ones are ordinary people. The comet, according to their ideas, was a messenger, a kind of star courier. The name of the comets was given by the ancient Greeks. In each comet, they saw a head, whose long hair fluttered behind it. The word "comet" itself came from "cometis", which translates from ancient Greek as "hairy". The Greeks did not treat these celestial bodies with such fear as many other peoples. Aristotle even tried to explain this phenomenon. He did not see the patterns in the movement of comets, so he decided that these were atmospheric fumes, which, rising high up, light up. Seneca, a Roman thinker and scientist who noticed the periodicity of the appearance of comets, tried to make the assumption that the comet is a special celestial body that only goes away and does not go out. But no one began to listen to him, since Aristotle was considered a recognized expert in this field. Comets today are frequent guests of outer space close to the Earth. They fall about once every 2-3 years. Every year new comets open. They are interested in astrophysicists, astronomers, chemists and other scientists.
