HALLEY'S COMET, the only one of the short-period comets (orbital period approx. 76 years), easily accessible for observation with the naked eye.

Relatively small nuclei of comets, consisting of ice interspersed with dust particles, approaching the Sun, are enveloped in a huge atmosphere (coma) of gas and dust hundreds of thousands of kilometers long. Intense solar heating vaporizes ice from the comet's nucleus, expelling gas and dust into its surrounding atmosphere. Then, under the pressure of solar photons and high-speed particles of the solar wind, this substance flies away in the opposite direction from the Sun, forming a gas-dust tail of a comet, reaching a length of millions of kilometers.

In March 1986, Halley's comet was observed not only by numerous amateur astronomers and professional scientists, but also by five international spacecraft ( see also SPACE PROBE). The Japanese probes "Sakigake" and "Suisei" observed a huge hydrogen cloud surrounding the comet, and investigated the interaction of the comet with charged particles of the solar wind. The Soviet probes "Vega-1 and -2" passed on March 6 and 9 at distances of 8,871 and 8,014 km from the comet. On March 14, 1986, the Giotto probe of the European Space Agency passed closest to the nucleus of comet , only 605 km. Television images transmitted by European and Soviet probes showed the comet's pitch black nucleus. Comparing ground and space observations of gas and dust surrounding the core, scientists concluded that it is about 50% ice, and the rest is dust and other non-volatile substances. Ice is mostly water (80%) and carbon monoxide (10%), with the rest being formaldehyde, carbon dioxide, methane, ammonia and hydrocyanic acid. The non-volatile part, mainly represented by micron-sized dust particles, consists of either rocky matter or light hydrocarbons.

Externally, the nucleus of Halley's comet is a potato-shaped object measuring approx. 14ґ 10ґ 8 km. Its very black crust of carbonaceous (organic) matter is in many places covered with faults, through which the subcrustal substance is visible, consisting mainly of water ice interspersed with dark dust grains. Since the comet's nucleus rotates around its axis with a period of several days, this ice evaporates under the influence of sunlight and turns into gas, which, flying out of the nucleus, captures dust particles with it. It was this core, like a small, dirty iceberg, that supplied all the gas and dust that formed the vast atmosphere and tail of the comet.

Halley's comet was the first to be predicted to return periodically to the central region of the solar system. Using the mathematical apparatus developed by I. Newton, his colleague E. Halley (16561742) calculated the parameters of the orbits of 24 comets observed by astronomers in previous years. It turned out that the comets that appeared in 1531, 1607 and 1682 had similar orbits. Halley suggested that in reality it was one and the same object, and predicted that the comet now bearing his name would return to the Sun at the end of 1758 or at the beginning of 1759. When at the end of 1758 the German amateur astronomer I. Palich discovered the comet in the sky, this was a triumph for Halley's calculations and Newton's underlying laws.

On its long path along the orbit, Halley's comet falls under the gravitational attraction of the planets it passes by, and approaching the Sun, it feels a weak force return from the gases evaporating from the surface of its nucleus. Under the influence of these perturbations, the comet's orbital period can change for several years from one of its appearances to the next. Calculating the past motion of Halley's Comet allows us to calculate each of its 30 appearances between 240 B.C. and 1986. Its next two solar transits are expected on July 28, 2061 and March 27, 2134. The comet's 1986 flyby was a bit of a disappointment to observers because it didn't get close enough to Earth. Its minimum distance from our planet on April 10, 1986 was 63 million km. Unfortunately, during the return in 2061, the comet will not come closer to the Earth than 71 million km. This will happen on July 29, 2061. And the return of 2134 will be more impressive, since the comet on May 7, 2134 will be at a distance of 13.7 million km from the Earth.

Comet is an object of the solar system with a central part and a tail. It is the residual material resulting from the emergence of the solar system. The composition of the comet includes: metal, frozen water, methane, stones, ammonia, carbon dioxide, dust.

Comets are some of the most mysterious objects in our system. Despite the fact that knowledge about them is constantly updated, there are still a large number of questions around the presented space objects.

Of great interest to mankind is Halley's comet. She is an old-timer among other comets. It is known that the period of revolution of this object around the Sun is about 77 years. The presented discovery was made by Halley, whose name the comet was named. The object is of great value to people. Thanks to him, the law of gravity was confirmed. Among other things, the comet is the only object that has been observed for the past 22 centuries.

Halley's comet among the family of comets

All comets belong to the family of small bodies. This group also includes asteroids and meteors. But comets are interesting because when they are near the Sun, they grow from small bodies into huge dust shells.

The most popular comet is recognized Halley's Comet. What is the reason for the increased interest in it? First of all, the fact that its orbit is tangent to our planet. There are several similar comets, but they are poorly understood. And Halley's object has long been under close observation, and does not lose its combustibility when it meets the Sun.

The average period of revolution of a comet around a star is about 76-77 years. But it can change and be equal to 74 - 79 years. The tail and central part of the comet, which have attracted human attention since ancient times, are actually huge blocks of polluted ice, minerals and dust.

There are 2 meteor showers associated with the comet. One of them is the Orionid, the second is the Aquarid. The latter can be seen from late April to mid-May. At the same time, its peak is celebrated on May 5. You can see it only in the southern hemisphere, if you look at the starry sky. It looks like bright and beautiful meteors gliding across the sky.

The Orionid shower occurs in early October - early November. Its peak falls on October 21st. Despite the fact that the density of this stream is less, it seems to be more abundant, since it is located higher above the horizon. During the shower, if you look at the sky, you can see meteors flying at intervals of 2 minutes. Both streams are one of the most beautiful sights that can be observed from our planet.

HALLEY COMET, named after E. Halley, who in 1705 predicted its next appearance near the Earth in 1758. The prediction was based on Newton's theory of gravity and a comparison of observations of a bright comet in 1531, 1607 and 1682, which, as Halley suggested, referred to the same comet. Later it turned out that the same comet was observed as early as 240 BC by Chinese astronomers, and also, probably, in 164 BC in Babylon. In a number of works of art, the appearance of Halley's comet is associated with the Star of Bethlehem.

The average period of Halley's revolution of a comet around the Sun is 76 years. The last appearance of Halley's comet near the Sun occurred in 1986, the next is expected in the middle of 2061. Halley's comet moves in an elliptical orbit with a semi-major axis of 17.9 AU, an eccentricity of 0.97 and an inclination to the ecliptic plane of 162 °, that is, in the inverse compared to the planets in the direction around the Sun, approaching it at perihelion to a distance of 0.59 AU. (about 80 million km) and moving away from it at aphelion at a distance of 35.1 AU. (about 5.2 billion km), that is, beyond the orbit of Neptune.

During the passage of Halley by the comet of perihelion in 1986, spacecraft (SC) were sent to it by different countries. The most successful were the flybys near the comet's nucleus (1000-380 km) of the Soviet spacecraft "Vega-1" and "Vega-2" and the European spacecraft "Giotto", which made it possible to obtain data on the size of the nucleus, its chemical composition, the properties of the atmosphere and dust particles .

The transmitted television images show an irregularly shaped core and an uneven outflow of gas and dust material that forms a cometary atmosphere (coma). The size of the coma reaches 100,000 km, and the tail formed from it extends for tens of millions of kilometers. The comet's nucleus measures 8x7x16 km. Core composition: about 80% water ice, 10% carbon monoxide, 2.5% mixture of methane and ammonia in the solid phase, as well as iron, sodium, hydrocarbons, hydrogen cyanide and some other compounds. The density of the nucleus is estimated at 200-1200 kg/m 3 , that is, the comet's Halley nucleus is quite loose and porous, which corresponds to the "dirty snowball" model with inclusions of rock fragments. The albedo of the core surface is extremely small (about 0.035), which is probably due to the layer of carbon and organic compounds covering it; this contributes to the absorption of sunlight and intense degassing. Due to the removal of a large amount of dust during the sublimation of the substance of the nucleus along the Halley orbit of the comet, a dust torus is formed. In its movement around the Sun, the Earth crosses it twice, which is the reason for the occurrence of meteor showers in May and October.

With each approach to Halley's Sun, the comet loses more than a billion tons of matter (about 0.2% of its mass) and must completely exhaust the volatile components of the nucleus in about 500 revolutions, that is, in about 40 thousand years. It is possible, however, that even earlier the surface of the nucleus will be covered with a dense dust crust, which prevents the sublimation of ice, and the comet will turn into an asteroid-like body. There is also a possibility that under the influence of deformations the core will break up into several fragments.

Lit .: Belyaev N. A., Churyumov K. I. Halley's Comet and its observation. M., 1985.

"Tailed stars", as comets were called in ancient times. In Greek, the word "comet" means "hairy". Indeed, these cosmic bodies have a long trail or "tail". Moreover, it is always turned away from the Sun, regardless of the trajectory of movement. The solar wind is to blame for this, which deflects the plume away from the luminary.

Halley's comet belongs just to the company of "hairy" cosmic bodies. It is short-period, that is, it regularly returns to the Sun in less than 200 years. More precisely, it can be seen in the night sky every 76 years. But this figure is not absolute. Due to the influence of the planets, the trajectory of movement can change, and the error due to this is 5 years. The term is quite decent, especially if you look forward to the space beauty.

She was last seen in the Earth's sky in 1986. Before that, she delighted earthlings with her beauty in 1910. The next visit is scheduled for 2062. But a capricious traveler may appear a year earlier or be five years late. Why is this cosmic body so famous, consisting of frozen gas and solid particles interspersed in it?

Here, first of all, it should be noted that the ice visitor has been known to people for more than 2 thousand years. Its first observation dates back to 240 BC. uh. It is not at all excluded that someone has seen this luminous body before, just no data has been preserved about this. After the specified date, it was observed in the sky 30 times. Thus, the fate of the space wanderer is inextricably linked with human civilization.

Further, it should be said that this is the first of all comets in which an elliptical orbit was calculated and the frequency of returning to Mother Earth was determined. Mankind owes this to the English astronomer Edmund Halley(1656-1742). It was he who compiled the very first catalog of the orbits of comets that periodically appear in the night sky. At the same time, he noticed that the paths of movement of 3 comets completely coincide. We saw these travelers in 1531, 1607 and 1682. The Englishman came up with the idea that this is one and the same comet. It revolves around the Sun with a period equal to 75-76 years.

Based on this, Edmund Halley suggested that a bright object would appear in the night sky in 1758. The scientist himself did not live up to this date, although he lived for 85 years. But the impetuous traveler was seen on December 25, 1758 by the German astronomer Johann Palich. And by March 1759, dozens of astronomers had already seen this comet. Thus, Halley's predictions were exactly confirmed, and the systematically returning guest was named after him in the same 1759.

What is Halley's Comet?? Its age lies in the range from 20 to 200 thousand years. Rather, this is not even age, but movement along the existing orbit. Previously, it could be different due to the influence of the gravitational forces of the planets and the Sun.

The core of the space traveler is shaped like a potato and is small in size.. They are 15×8 km. The density is 600 kg / m 3, and the mass reaches 2.2 × 10 14 kg. The core consists of methane, nitrogen, water, carbon and other gases bound by cosmic cold. Solid particles are embedded in the ice. These are mainly silicates, which make up 95% of rocks.

Approaching the luminary, this huge "cosmic snowball" heats up. As a result, the process of evaporation of gases begins. A hazy cloud forms around a comet called coma. In diameter, it can reach 100 thousand km.

The closer to the Sun, the longer the coma becomes. She has a tail that stretches for several million km. This is due to the fact that the solar wind, knocking out gas particles from the coma, throws them far back. In addition to the gas tail, there is also a dust tail. It scatters sunlight, so it looks like a long smoky streak in the sky.

The luminous traveler can already be distinguished at a distance of 11 AU. e. from the luminary. It is perfectly visible in the sky when 2 AU remains to the Sun. e. It goes around the hot star and comes back. Halley's comet flies past the Earth at a speed of about 70 km/s. Gradually, as you move away from the star, its light becomes dimmer, and then the radiant beauty turns into a lump of gas and dust and disappears from view. Its next appearance has to wait more than 70 years. Therefore, astronomers can see a space wanderer only once in a lifetime.

She flies far, far away and disappears in the Oort cloud. It is an impenetrable space abyss at the edge of the solar system. It is there that comets are born, and then begin to travel between planets. They rush to the luminary, go around it and rush back. Our heroine is one of them. But unlike other cosmic bodies, it is closer and dearer to earthlings. After all, her acquaintance with people has been going on for more than 20 centuries.

Alexander Shcherbakov

On the eve of the new decade of the twentieth century, the world community has undergone another serious shake-up. The reason was not war and not another revolution. This time, the threat did not come from people, but directly from the sky: in 1910, another appearance of Halley's comet was expected.

The English scientist Edmund Halley at the beginning of the 18th century became the first astronomer who managed to calculate the orbit of a comet and, accordingly, predict the appearance of a celestial body near the Sun. Bright, clearly visible from the Earth with the naked eye, with a relatively short return period (75-76 years), Halley's comet quickly became the most famous "celestial wanderer". According to the calculations of astronomers in May 1910, the Earth had to pass through the comet's tail, stretching for tens of millions of kilometers. In the latest photographs of the comet's spectrum, bands of cyanide (synerode), a poisonous gas, were found. He became well known to the public from criminal reports: potassium cyanide was already a popular suicide poison in Europe. Therefore, the return of this comet has never been expected with such interest and anxiety.

Almost nothing was known about the origin and physical properties of the comet's tail; scientists, along with journalists, wondered about the possible consequences. The comet has become not just a traditional herald of troubles, but also their immediate cause: scientific ideas were superimposed on archaic ideas.

But the panic in society began long before the appearance of the comet-poisoner. At the very beginning of 1910, in the atmosphere of Halley's anxious expectation, another bright comet suddenly appeared in the sky of the Southern Hemisphere, visible even in the daytime sky (the Great January Comet C / 1910 A1). In the press, confusion begins: no one knows where Halley is, which of the comets found poison in the tail - and in general, whether these comets are different or one. "Petersburg leaflet" at the end of January stated: "At present, the overwhelming majority of foreign newspapers state that comet A. is precisely Halley's comet, which appeared a year earlier than it was calculated by astronomers." Astronomers themselves, of course, have repeatedly stated that these are two different comets.

Comet and the world

The news of the poisoned tail and the unexpected appearance of the second comet fueled the already heated debate and speculation that arose around the new phenomenon. Every now and then, new destructive forces were attributed to comets - floods in France, snow storms in the Ryazan region, or even stopping trams.

Correspondent Berliner Tagebl. telegraphs about an amazing phenomenon that took place near Florence. Between Valla and Sampiero a shower of small, round, incandescent meteorites began to rain. Roads, fields and vineyards are completely covered with them. Most of the plantings have died. After this fiery rain, the clouds parted and a shining comet was visible. The population in fear serves prayers.

Heavenly power is with us!
Something is wrong in the world
Listening to us is no longer nice
Talk about a new comet!
Waiting for Halley's comet.
Suddenly another appeared;
Secret mysterious way,
Shines, shining in the sky.
<...>
How will we manage?
Trouble is getting closer and closer.
Somewhere the ground is shaking
And the flood in Paris.
the eiffel tower sank,
Those people walk in anxiety;
That's right, the comet hit
Tower tail on the road!

The approach of comets has become a fertile topic for the periodical press - in many ways, the general panic attacks were provoked by the press itself. Newspapers reported on mass confessions in Parisian churches, on miners' strikes in the United States, on the growing number of lunatics in Italy, and on French charlatans who had established the production of means to escape the comet's poison gas - bottles of air, special "anti-comet" tablets and even umbrellas. Entrepreneurial people in England offered those who wished to rent a submarine for rescue. The comet was the culprit.

Comet in Russia

One of the correspondents of the newspaper "Morning of Russia" later stated:

“We can proudly admit that the “Russian barbarians”, as our Western European friends like to call us, turned out to be much more cultured than our European neighbors in the matter of Halley's comet ... No suicides, no prayers, no unrest - in a word, not a hint of what accompanied - expectation of the "end of the world" in other countries. Russian society and even ordinary people reacted soberly and calmly to all expectations, which in no way corresponded to reality. Now, everyone says, you can safely live another 75 years before, perhaps, a new meeting of the comet with the earth.

In fact, the January comet in Russia also caused various speculation and tantrums.

“On January 16, at 5 pm, a comet appeared in the north-west of the sky, it occupied a vertical position, the tail was narrow, turned upward, somewhat curving towards the south; yellowish color.<...>The comet caused a lot of talk among the peasants: old people, especially women, consider it an omen of the imminent doom of light. Literates argue that according to the Gospel it has not yet come out: they recognize the decrease in faith and love between people, the multiplication of vices and disasters is obvious, but the Antichrist has not been born.

As in the West, enterprising people also took advantage of the approach of comets for their own benefit. In Moscow, the sect of Brother John became active again Brother John- Ivan Churikov (1861-1933), leader of the spiritual movement of the Churikovites. He preached the idea of ​​spiritual salvation through giving up alcohol and smoking. He opposed the census, was repeatedly imprisoned, founded a colony of teetotalers near Vyritsa. In 1929 he was arrested by the OGPU., who now preached the secret knowledge of comets. It was reported that in Tver the appearance of the comet had already been used by some clever entrepreneurs. On the bustling streets of the city, suspicious individuals are selling the pamphlet Halley's Comet and the End of the World.

“Brother John hosted a crowded meeting the other day on ‘thumping topics’. Here are some excerpts from his sermon. “There was a congress about the green serpent, but nothing came of it, because the green serpents came to it.” “Now, they say, some kind of tail-comet will fly in, they assume that it will touch the Earth, and I say: the stupid people themselves are hurting their heads for Pushkin and Lermontov (!)“.
A thousand-strong crowd of naive, mostly women, tearfully sobs, assenting to Brother.
The business of Bratz, apparently, is expanding: improved ventilation and electric lighting are arranged in the room.

On the other hand, many members of the scientific community did their best to reassure the population. Various public lectures gained great popularity, where a certain professor A. A. Ivanov assured the audience that the comet was safe and would fly by at a respectable distance from the Earth. Often, information about the comet received from newspapers or public lectures backfired. For example, information about the poisonous gas contained in the tail of Halley's comet sometimes took on absurd forms.

“Yesterday and the third day, the editorial office was repeatedly contacted by telephone by the townsfolk, who claimed that they felt, as it were, a “smell of alcohol” in the air, and fearfully inquired whether this strange phenomenon was connected with the approach of Halley's comet.
Although the smells of Halley's comets have not yet been investigated, it is unlikely that a heavenly body can still "reek of vodka".
If the noses of our interlocutors on the phone do not hallucinate, then the alcoholic smell is more likely to be explained by the increased preparation of alcohol for the holiday.
Celestial mechanics here, in any case, have nothing to do with it.

The arrival of comets inspired the resolution of everyday problems. So, one young girl placed her ad in the marriage newspaper with the headline “In front of the comet”, and another, dressed as a comet, participated in a costume contest. However, the resourceful Mrs. Zhukova had to be content with only second place: the first was awarded to Mrs. Gaidarova for the pumpkin outfit.

The appearance of Halley's comet also served as a good occasion for witty exercises. A caricature of one of the leaders of the nationalist movement in Russia, an employee of the Novoye Vremya, Mikhail Menshikov, with the caption: “If a comet collides with the Earth, you will have to write an article about the dominance of foreign elements.” Feuilletonists also delighted the audience with their works. Vladimir Golikov, under the pseudonym Wega, published a series of miniatures in the newspaper Voice of Moscow, humorously highlighting the reaction of leading newspapers to the comet. Among them, the Cadet newspaper "Rech" allegedly stated the following about the comet:

Comet Appearance
Gives no illusions to the press
And it doesn't signify
Relief of repression.

The more radical Novoye Vremya, which was sympathetic to nationalist circles, allegedly considered the appearance of the comet a foreign provocation:

Comet is coming...
We know these approaches!
In this, the neighbors, probably
Foreigners are to blame!
They say they intercourse
Started with the vault of heaven
And Halley's comet
Poisoned with synergy.
In the pre-reform period
They wouldn't be given indulgence
And now, under the Third Duma,
The authorities are dormant.

There were also texts in the spirit of useful advice to the population, where the apocalyptic theme was surprisingly combined with a cheerful intonation:

We have a minute dear:
The world is coming to an end!
Bulga stands on the ground
For this reason.

Soon we'll have a comet tail
Throws on the shoulder blades.
Don't lend money
Give away leftovers!

Writers about the comet

The news of the comet disturbed not only the mass reader of newspapers, but also the metropolitan intelligentsia, therefore it is not surprising that not only “poems in case” from humorous newspapers, but also very serious texts of famous writers were dedicated to the comet. Until 1910, the comet was already quite a traditional poetic image. However, until the news of the disastrous synergy spread in society, this image was very attractive, but still quite innocent. In most cases, the comet served, for example, as a metaphor for describing love relationships. So, in Maximilian Voloshin's wreath of sonnets "In the worlds of love, unfaithful comets ..." (1909), consisting of 15 poems, the comet was the central image, but did not carry with it any threat:

In the worlds of love, unfaithful comets,
Through the heavenly spheres flickering stozhar -
Clubs of fire, raging fire,
Wandering lights of universal storms, -

We carry far...

Everything changed in 1910, when rumors spread about a catastrophe threatening the Earth. The eve of the comet's return is marked by an explosion of references to it in poems. The comet has become a steady sign of danger and doom. In the poems of Nikolai Gumilyov, the comet appeared several times; in Mikhail Zenkevich, she appeared in the form of a poisonous snake ("Gloomy God"); David Burliuk was saturated with poison ("Stans").

The symbolists were most sensitive to the approach of the comet. For them, it was not just a potential threat, but also an undeniable sign of the end of the world. Sergey Sokolov (Krechetov) described the state of a person who was preparing to meekly accept death from a comet (“The Last Man”):

Comets are a sign, like snake rings,
Crowns the sky. So. It's time.
I lie, motionless, numb,
By the cold fire...

Igor Severyanin, an ego-futurist poet, despite his aesthetic disagreements with the Symbolists, was in solidarity with them on this issue. Moreover, he was convinced that the comet is not just a symbol of the end of the world, but also a punishment for people for all their sins, which he expressed in his poetry “Sextina. A presentiment is more tormenting than a comet ... ":

How divinely enlightened you are in the darkness!
Prophetically vague signs;
They are bonfires, but those bonfires are everywhere...
Folk genius, closed in need,
One managed to know the comet's dream
And talk about the vengeful star.

I see death coming in a star
And, if you are evil lost in the darkness,
The prophet is a poet of pagan signs,
You talk to me about the horrors of the comet,
I merge with you and about need
I want to forget: why? Because death is everywhere!
She's coming, she's already everywhere!

I wing hello to the punishing star -
She brings an end to earthly need...
Like ten suns, sparkle, star, you are in the darkness,
Blind life and justify signs
Comet enchanting oblivion!

Block and comets

Alexander Blok could not remain indifferent during these unrest in 1910. The appearance of comets corresponded to his symbolic picture of the world, in which, after the revolution of 1905, the poet and mankind were on the verge of a mystical catastrophe. Comets were both heralds and the cause of it - the embodied element. Blok was especially inspired not by Halley, but by the unexpected Great January Comet. It is about this first comet that the poet writes to his mother on January 11 (the comet is not yet visible in the Petersburg sky, the city is filled with rumors):

“Do you know that besides Halley’s comet (a safe one like Nat[alya] Nik[olaevna] [Volokhova]) another unknown one is coming – a real stranger? Its tail, consisting of cinerod (hence the blue gaze), can poison our atmosphere, and all of us, reconciled before death, will sweetly fall asleep from the bitter smell of almonds on a quiet night, looking at a beautiful comet ... "

In the printed speeches of astronomers devoted to the new comet, there was no mention of cyanide - it is he, like potassium cyanide, that smells of bitter almonds - there was no mention. But this is not important - Halleya, according to Blok, could not be a "stranger" simply because she is familiar to everyone: her orbit is known, returns to the Sun are predicted. The January comet suited the role of an unexpected guest much better. Since the mid-1900s, the image of a comet in Blok's lyrics has been associated with a female character - through Pushkin's "Portrait" ("Like a lawless comet / In a circle of calculated luminaries") and through Apollon Grigoriev's "Comet" ("The comet will fly in the wrong line"). The stranger from Blok's drama of the same name is the "falling maiden star"; the image of the comet's tail can be seen both in the "mourning feathers" from the poem "The Stranger", and in the plume, "blizzard tambourine", fan from "There, in the howling cold of the night ...". The image of a female comet appears especially insistently in the Snow Mask cycle (1907) (“You alone will rise over the whole desert / Expand the plume of the comet”). The addressee of the "Snow Mask" itself, actress Natalya Nikolaevna Volokhova, with whom Blok fell in love in winter
1906-1907, did not accept the life-building practices of the poet, refusing to take the place of the Stranger. In a letter to his mother, Blok jokingly cancels the addressing of the cycle (Volokhova = Halley's familiar comet) and finds a new motivation for the image of the heroine through the synerode: "hence the blue gaze" (the poet recalls in the letter the poem "A plume spattered with stars ..." from "The Snow Mask" and line "blue, blue, blue eyes").

In February 1910, Blok wrote the famous "Black Raven in the Snowy Twilight ...", in which comets and earthly passion unite in the images of a "terrible world":

Scary world! It is too small for the heart!
In it - your kisses are nonsense,
The dark haze of gypsy songs,
Hasty flight of comets!

However, the Great January comet will leave the earth's sky without any incident, and Blok will already meet the May Halley without much enthusiasm. On May 12 in Shakhmatovo, Blok writes in his notebook:

“This morning I got up from a warm bed at four o'clock in the morning to look at the comet. It was a gray morning, the fog swirled ...
I did not see the comet, but I saw how [the tenant] Egor, who got up with his pregnant wife, hastily and furtively stuffed a wagon of straw ... how the sheep came out - and rushed without a look at our clover, unfed hens crawled out ... three unfortunate calves came out, hobbled with bucket pregnant Olga.

Along with Blok's disappointment in comets that did not bring their symbolic potential to life, the motifs in his poetry, which were united for a short time, also disintegrate. The “comet” theme is summed up by the famous poem “Comet” (“You threaten us with the last hour ...”), the first edition of which was written in September of the same 1910, when the unrest around Halle finally subsided. The comet in the poem is neutralized through comparison with human civilization - the Earth turns out to be the same comet: "Our world, spreading its tail of a peacock, / Like you, is filled with a riot of dreams." Both the elements and civilization are equally overcome by the hero:

No! Death is not terrible for the hero,
When the dream is crazy!
Even if you are above your head
Exude the sweet poison of the tail,
And menacingly silent behind
Monotonous screw crack. Cit. according to the first edition.

This is one of Blok's rare poems of the 1910s, where victory over catastrophe and death triumphs - both The Aviator (1912) and the opening stanzas of Retribution will be performed in a completely different intonation. But in 1910, the cyanide from departed comets was found to be harmless.