How will astronomers be studying Comet Halley?
To coordinate observations of the comet around the world, astronomers have formed The International Halley Watch, con sisting of professional and amateur astronomers in many countries. All observations will be sent to IHW to establish a single archive that will be the richest record of a cometary encounter ever assembled. Not only will Halley be observed with all sorts of telescopes on Earth, the advent of the space age makes it possible for the first time to send space probes to make close-up measurements of the comet’s properties. A small armada of spacecraft will monitor Halley, including five that will fly by the comet in March of 1986. Japan and the Soviet Union are each sending two probes to Halley, while the European Space Agency (the European equivalent of NASA) is sending one. The U.S. decided not to send a fly-by craft to Halley, but we are redirecting an older probe to fly by another comet (Giacobini-Zinner) in September 1985. In addition we will be making observations of Co
