“For many ancient cultures, a comet’s appearance in the sky was seen as a precursor to destruction, disease and other major problems that mean bad news for the people of the region.

The comet of 1664 sent shivers of threat throughout Europe, and the terror seem justify when the plague and the Great Fire of London followed soon after.

But for one child, the comet was not the least bit frightening. For him, it was a thing of wonder.”

That child was Edmond Halley, an English scientist who predicted the orbits of comets around the sun for the first time. By recognizing a pattern in his research, Halley was the first to track the period of the comet eventually named for him.

[Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey – Episode 3, “When Knowledge Conquered Fear”]