Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF), known as “green kite” due to the light it emits, it is passing through the Earth after 50 thousand years and today its trajectory can be followed from a smartphone and on various platforms, but in 1986, the only way to do it was to look up to scrutinize the sky. In those days, another celestial body arrived to brighten our days, almost becoming a star… but a rock one.
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We are talking about Halley’s Comet, named after the English astronomer Edmund Halley, who was the first to determine its orbital period in 1705. Thanks to him, we learned that the star took about 76 years to return to Earth.
By 1986, we Peruvians were experiencing a supposed economic stability that was about to collapse a few months later, during the first government of Alan García, but the attacks and selective assassinations of Sendero Luminoso in the capital made us live in fear.
Few dared to go on a trip to the interior of the country for fear of violence. But when the arrival of the Halley was announced, which reappeared for the first time since 1910, many forgot about the trips and began to organize walks, camps, and excursions to the outskirts of Lima, especially to the southern beaches, where they are supposed to be. there would be a better view of the comet.
IN SEARCH OF THE COMET
The first photo taken of the famous celestial star from national territory was obtained on March 10, from Punta Pejerrey, in Paracas, according to the newspaper ‘El Comercio’ at that time. The television also reported endless caravans of cars leaving Lima, obsessed with seeing a show that can only be seen “once in a lifetime.”
The preferred destinations were Cañete, Lunahuaná, Canta, Punta Pejerrey, Huarochirí, Manchay, Santa Rosa de Quives, Matucana and San Mateo, according to information from the aforementioned medium.
Thousands of Peruvians came out of Lima in caravans to see it. (Photo: Juvenal Alvarado / GEC Historical Archive)
“Seeing Halley’s comet from our city is not an easy thing. But, about a hundred kilometers south of Lima, the situation improves”, indicates a note published in El Comercio on Wednesday, April 9, 1986.
Then he adds: “The most favorable days fluctuate between Friday the 11th and the 15th of this month. In order to guide our readers how to locate it, we are publishing today the Halley’s Mobile Celestial Chart, designed by astronomer Julio Rivera Castillo”. At the end, the note states that “with this instrument, which you can make yourself, you will know the position and the hours in which the star will be observed in the sky.” It was about cutting and pasting sheets following certain instructions.
The information in the newspaper ‘El Comercio’ on April 11, 1986 said that the comet would reach its closest distance to Earth that day: 63 million kilometers. On April 12, El Comercio headlined: “The ‘discolado’ Halley provoked a wave of collective fervor in Peru”, thus referring to the much commented “giant tail of the star”.
THE TERROR OF 1910
But yes, in 1986 it was a party in its previous step of the 20th century, in 1910, it caused a lot of fear among the population, who still did not understand much about celestial stars. Some European scientists then predicted that, if it collided with the Earth, it would be the worst tragedy of humanity, the final one. Astronomers like the Frenchman Camillus Flammarion held terminal visions for the world.
According to data from the time, between January 1 and May 18 of that “fateful year” of 1910, more than 400 suicides occurred in the world linked to the arrival of the comet, which every 75 or 76 years reappeared on the planet. blue.
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On May 19, 1910, the day after the central day, no one had died after the supposed “end of the world”, predicted by some apocalyptic scientists. El Comercio published a note with a reassuring headline: “Halley’s Comet… And it was nothing”, in which a synthesis of how the Earth had received the feared star was made.
The next time it will arrive will be in 2062, according to calculations, and perhaps some of us will be lucky enough to see it for the second time in their lives.
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