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Hey, smarty pants, let's take a trip back in time, say a thousand years, to the European countryside.
Imagine it's nighttime.
Oh, and you've spent all day out in the fields tending to your sheep.
I'm a shepherd with sheep?
Boring.
Fine, fine.
You spent all day tending to your tigers.
That's better.
You're heading back to the village when, through the treetops, you notice something up in the sky.
You race up a hill to get a better look.
Among the stars, you see it.
A bright dot in the sky with a long glowing tail.
Do you know what it is?
Ice.
Ice.
Comet.
That's right, weird singer.
It is just that, a beautiful comet.
It's like nothing you've ever seen before.
You sprint down to the village to tell everyone.
You don't want them to miss this dazzling object in the sky.
You run to the center of town and shout...
Look!
Up in the sky!
It's a comet!
Come on, smarty pants!
Shout it out too!
Let all the villagers know there's a comet!
Look!
Up in the sky!
It's a comet!
It's a comet!
The villagers hear you and stick their heads out their windows or wander out of their homes into the streets.
They hear your words, look up at the sky and say...
It's a comet!
Run!
Shut your windows!
Lock your doors!
Hide your kids!
What have we done to deserve this?
Does this mean there'll be war?
Or illness?
Or famine?
Or drought?
Will it destroy our village?
Or my home?
Will it make me fall in the mud again?
I fell again!
Why, comet?
Why?
Why?
At this point, everyone's looking at you, Tiger Queen, and they're not happy.
This is your fault.
What do we do?
Um, I don't know.
I thought it looked kind of cool.
And you'd be right.
Comets are cool.
Cool like a snowball.
But a thousand years ago, people thought they were scary or a sign of bad things to come.
So what exactly are comets?
And why did people fear them so much?
And when can you expect to see another bright one?
It's time for another whiff of science on Who Smarted?
Who Smarted?
Who's smart?
Is it you?
Is it me?
Is it science?
Or history?
Listen up, everyone!
We make smarting lots of fun on Who Smarted?
Question.
Have you ever seen a comet, Smarty Pants?
If you haven't seen one in the sky yet, maybe you've seen a picture of one online or in a book or on TV.
There's lots of great images of comets on NASA's website for free.
These days, it's a thrill to see a comet, since it's unlike anything else in the night sky.
Comets look like bright stars with long tails.
They've been studied since ancient times.
People in China and the Middle East wrote about them more than 3,000 years ago.
It was the ancient Greeks who came up with the word comet.
Can you guess what it means?
Is it A, the tailed one, B, the hairy one, or C, the cloudy one?
Well, the answer is B, the hairy one.
Huh?
I know.
You're probably thinking, that's crazy.
Why would they compare a comet to someone with a lot of hair?
Yes, well, but can someone help me shave my back?
But it actually makes sense if you think of a comet as a person's head, with long, shimmering hair flowing out from it.
Of course, a comet doesn't actually have hair or a tail for that matter.
In fact, when a comet is far away from the sun, it's not very spectacular to look at at all.
Comets are typically less than six miles wide and appear, like many other jagged rocks in space, similar to asteroids.
However, comets are more than just rock.
Mixed in are chunks of ice which scientists believed were formed at the beginning of our solar system, more than 45 billion years ago.
People have nicknamed comets dirty snowballs because of this ice and rock mix.
When a comet approaches the sun, it heats up and the ice turns into gas.
The comet develops an atmosphere, which is called a coma.
This coma grows as it's hit by more sunlight and high-speed particles from the sun, called solar wind.
The solar wind pushes at the comet's atmosphere, causing dust and gas to fly off, creating what?
Did you say the comet's tail?
That's right, smarty pants.
This glowing tail that resembles long, flowing hair can stretch for millions of miles.
Whoa.
These days, everyone seems to get excited whenever a comet swoops by.
But as you heard earlier, that wasn't always the case.
Why comet?
Why?
Like I said, comets were once seen as bad omens or a sign that awful things were about to happen.
Perhaps that's because they appeared during some major Earth-changing events.
People claimed to see a comet in 44 BC, just before the great emperor of Rome, Julius Caesar, was killed.
500 years later, another comet was recorded, just before the powerful tribal leader, Attila the Hun was defeated in battle.
And about 600 years after that, a comet appeared in the sky, just before William the Conqueror invaded England and toppled its ruler, King Harold II.
Of course, for the winners of these wars, the comet was a good sign.
Ooh!
According to some accounts, the mighty Mongolian warrior, Genghis Khan, was inspired by a comet to expand his empire.
This is Chet Dickerson reporting live from Mongolia with Genghis Khan.
Genghis, you've conquered massive parts of China and Asia.
What are you planning to do next?
I don't know.
I'm tired.
Maybe I'll take a break.
Say, what's in the sky?
Genghis is pointing up at the sky at a bright object with a large hair-like tail.
Do you see that unusual star moving across the heavens?
Its tail points to the west.
That's where I must conquer next.
Warriors, attack!
That comet sure meant bad luck for the people in the West.
Back to you, narrator.
Most historians say Genghis Khan probably would have attempted to conquer Europe, regardless of whether or not he saw a comet.
The truth is, a comet is just another space object.
There's no proof that it brings good or bad luck.
And that includes the most famous comet of them all.
Huh?
Smarty Pants, can you name the most famous comet?
It's probably the only comet you can name.
Did you say Halley's Comet?
And do you know why it's called Halley's Comet?
Because it was discovered by an English astronomer named Edmund Halley.
Halley was a brilliant man who made significant discoveries in the field of mathematics meteorology, physics and geophysics.
He even invented the diving bell, allowing people to breathe underwater for long periods of time.
The only thing he didn't do was ever see the comet that bears his name.
Whoa.
Nope, never saw it.
What he did do was notice reports of comets appearing at regular intervals.
Hmm.
According to this written account, a comet appeared in the sky in 1531.
And then there was another comet sighting in 1607.
And some people reported seeing a comet in 1682.
Hmm.
Give or take a few months, those sightings are about 76 years apart.
What if they were all the same comet?
If so, the next sighting should be sometime in late 1758 or early 1759.
Haley was right.
The comet did return on Christmas night, 1758.
Ice, ice, comet.
Haley's discovery was a breakthrough for science, as it proved, most comets are space objects that revolve around the sun.
Unfortunately, Halley died a few years before the comet's return in 1758.
But other astronomers made sure that Halley's work would not be forgotten and named the comet after him.
Oh, hell, Halley's comet!
Fun fact.
Scholars later determined Halley's Comet was probably the same comet seen at the fall of Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror's invasion of England and Genghis Khan's attack on Europe.
Halley's Comet's most recent visit came in 1986, and scientists from around the world used that opportunity to send up spacecraft to get a close look at it.
But if you want to see it yourself, you're going to have to wait, because Halley's Comet won't return until July 2061.
Oh.
Thankfully, you don't have to wait that long to see a comet.
There are plenty of others, including some appearing soon.
How soon?
I'll tell you right after this quick break to get answers to the kinds of questions I know you love, like how do birds fly or why is the sky blue?
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Now back to Who Smarted?
You now know comets are icy space objects and not warnings of bad luck.
But how many comets are there?
What do you think?
A hundred?
A thousand?
More?
As of now, there are about 3,700 known comets.
But NASA believes there could be more.
As in billions more.
So where exactly do comets come from?
Hmm.
Is it A, the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter?
B, the Kuiper belt where Pluto lives?
Or C, an even farther region of space called the Oort cloud?
If you guessed B, the Kuiper belt, you're correct.
And if you guessed C, the Oort cloud, you're also right.
Comets start off in these faraway regions then are flung toward the Sun by the gravity of a passing star or planet.
As a comet heads towards the inner solar system, the Sun's gravity pulls it into orbit.
And as it flies around, it makes repeat appearances in the Earth's sky.
Most comets come from the Kuiper Belt and are called short-period comets because they usually take 200 years or less to complete one orbit around the Sun.
And Halley's comet is one of those comets.
The other group, called long-period comets, could take as long as 30 million years to go around the Sun.
These comets come from a cloud of icy objects known as the Oort cloud.
It's about 100,000 times farther from the sun than Earth.
Whoa.
NASA believes the Oort cloud may hold up to one trillion comets.
One such Oort cloud comet put on a spectacular show 25 years ago.
Its name was Hale-Bopp.
No, not M-Bopp.
Hale-Bopp.
Did you know Hale-Bopp's 1,000 times brighter than Halley's Comet?
When it was discovered, people could see it in the night sky without telescopes or instruments from 1996 to 1997.
Amazing!
In fact, Hale-Bopp is one of the most viewed comets ever.
But since Hale-Bopp travels through the Oort Cloud, it takes more than 4000 years to go around the Sun.
So there's no chance you'll see its return.
Aw, I missed it.
Will there be another one soon?
The truth is, who knows?
Hale-Bopp was only discovered about a year before it first appeared in the night sky, so there could be other bright comets on the way that we don't even know about yet.
In fact, one comet that was discovered in January will be visiting us this December.
And the name of that comet is...
Leonard.
Leonard?
Yeah, Leonard.
After the person who discovered it.
That's how comets are named these days.
What?
It probably won't be as bright or easy to see as Halley or Hale-Bopp, but you might still be able to view it without a telescope.
Be sure to watch the skies in December, and be sure to thank Leonard.
Ooh, and I'll be sure to tell all the villagers.
Yeah, most people aren't scared of comets anymore, but your tigers might freak them out a little.
A super special shout out to Maddox in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
I hear you.
Not only listen to Who Smarted every day, you even got your friends, family and teacher to subscribe.
Wow.
Talk about spreading the smarting.
Thanks, Maddox.
This episode Comets was written by Dave Hale-Bopp-Bodry and voiced by Chia Davis, Jason Williams, Charlotte Cohn, Max Kamaski, Adam Tex-Davis, Brandon Bayless and Jerry Colbert.
Technical direction and sound design by Josh Hahn.
Who Smarted is recorded and mixed at the Relic Room Studios.
Our associate producer is Max Kamaski.
The theme song is by Brian Suarez, with lyrics written and performed by Adam Tex Davis.
Who Smarted was created and produced by Adam Tex Davis and Jerry Colbert.
This has been an Atomic Entertainment production.
Hey, Smarty Pants, it's me, the trusty narrator, and I've got some big news and a tiny bit of pressure.
There's only a couple of days left to grab your early bird tickets to Who Smarted Seacamp, our one-hour interactive video adventures taking place December 29th and 30th.
That's right, you can join me for three different ocean adventures, as we explore sea creatures, underwater volcanoes and even the deepest spot on Earth, the mysterious Mariana Trench.
We'll do experiments together, play games and you'll even get to design your very own control panel to steer the SS Smarty Sub.
And the best part?
I'll be there the whole time so you can chat live with me, the trusty narrator.
But here's the important part our special early bird price ends December 15th.
After that, ticket prices go up and I don't want you to miss out on the discount.
Right now, your whole family can get a flex pass for just 39, good for any show, anytime on either day.
Pick the times that work best or come to them all.
So don't wait.
Hop on over to whosmarted.com and click Seacamp to save your spot before the price goes up.
That's whosmarted.com and click Seacamp.
I can't wait to see you and chat with you live in the sea.
