Comets at all times inspired fears in people. They always appeared very effectively, passed through the firmament, leaving questions about what it was and what to expect now. Even today, when the nature of these objects is clarified, many people are afraid of comets, believing that misfortune 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 foreshadowed the birth of Jesus Christ. Later, the appearance of other comets convinced people that they were evidence of something unusual. For example, Napoleon was convinced that the comet of 1769 was nothing more than a harbinger of his birth. Despite these events, as a rule, comets were associated with catastrophes and accidents. For example, in 79 AD. Vesuvius erupted, destroying the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and this event happened simultaneously with the appearance of the comet. The epidemic of 1665 in London also coincided with the appearance of a comet, in 1835 a lot of terrible things happened, and the comet that appeared at the same 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 rushing quickly 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 turn out to be the same “eccentric” in the future. Heaven is falling where is order? And also a strange glowing comet tail! Taken together, this seemed to be either the beginning of the fall of the heavens, or a divine foreshadowing of an impending catastrophe. True, there are situations when the Earth is really in some danger. For example, in the recent past, Halley's comet passed very close to Earth. The question of how high the likelihood of a collision with our planet was discussed quite seriously. Despite the fact that such an outcome was very unlikely, even the smallest possibility was already frightening 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 The first mention of comets in historical documents dates back to 2296 BC.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 the sky is similar to what happens on Earth. The brightest stars are the rulers and officials, and the smaller ones are the common people. The comet, according to their ideas, was a messenger, a kind of stellar courier. The name of the comets was given by the ancient Greeks. In every comet they saw a head, long hair fluttering in its wake. The very word "comet" comes from "cometis", which is translated from ancient Greek as "hairy". The Greeks did not treat these heavenly bodies with such fear as many other peoples. Aristotle even tried to explain this phenomenon. He did not see patterns in the movement of comets, so he decided that these were atmospheric vapors, which, rising high up, ignite. Seneca, a Roman thinker and scientist who noticed the periodicity of the appearance of comets, tried to suggest that a comet is a special celestial body that only moves away and does not go out. But no one listened to him, since Aristotle was considered a generally recognized expert in this field. Comets are still frequent guests of outer space close to the Earth today. They roll about once every 2-3 years. New comets are discovered every year. Astrophysicists, astronomers, chemists and other scientists are interested in them.
