what are supertitiuos beliefs on comets?

Answer 1

History of comet study

Early observations and thought
Historically, comets were thought to be unlucky, or even interpreted as attacks by heavenly beings against terrestrial inhabitants. Some authorities interpret references to "falling stars" in Gilgamesh, the Book of Revelation and the Book of Enoch as references to comets, or possibly bolides.

In the first book of his Meteorology, Aristotle propounded the view of comets that would hold sway in Western thought for nearly two thousand years. He rejected the ideas of several earlier philosophers that comets were planets, or at least a phenomenon related to the planets, on the grounds that while the planets confined their motion to the circle of the Zodiac, comets could appear in any part of the sky. Instead, he described comets as a phenomenon of the upper atmosphere, where hot, dry exhalations gathered and occasionally burst into flame. Aristotle held this mechanism responsible for not only comets, but also meteors, the aurora borealis, and even the Milky Way.

A few later classical philosophers did dispute this view of comets. Seneca the Younger, in his Natural Questions, observed that comets moved regularly through the sky and were undisturbed by the wind, behavior more typical of celestial than atmospheric phenomena. While he conceded that the other planets do not appear outside the Zodiac, he saw no reason that a planet-like object could not move through any part of the sky, humanity's knowledge of celestial things being very limited. However, the Aristotelian viewpoint proved more influential, and it was not until the 16th century that it was demonstrated that comets must exist outside the earth's atmosphere.

In 1577, a bright comet was visible for several months. The Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe used measurements of the comet's position taken by himself and other, geographically separated, observers to determine that the comet had no measureable parallax. Within the precision of the measurements, this implied the comet must be at least four times more distant from the earth than the moon.

Answer 2

Superstitious? - Comets were always thought to preceed a calamitous event - so they were prophets of doom - for example a comet was seen (possibly Halleys comet) before the battle of Hastings and the Norman conquest -in 1066 - it is depicted on the Bayeux tapestry.

Answer 3

This is not the appropriate section for this Q ..

I suggest :-
Home > Society & Culture > Mythology & Folklore

Answer 4

"When beggars die, there are no comets seen;
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes."

Answer 5

they were called 'hairy stars'...

(and use Check Spelling!)

Answer 6

They are referred to as "shooting stars".