People have known about comets, unlike other small bodies in the Solar System, since ancient times. The Chinese recorded visits by Halley's comet as far back as 240 B.C.

The famous Bayeux Tapestry, which commemorates the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, depicts an image of Halley's comet bright in the sky before the Battle of Hastings.

Some people thought this meant that King Harold would lose his throne to William, the Duke of Normandy. He did!

Edmund Halley of England studied comets and developed a theory suggesting that those sighted in 1531, 1607 and 1682 were actually the same object. He was the first to successfully predict the comet’s next appearance in 1758, but he died 16 years before the comet returned.