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What is the earliest generally accepted recorded appearance of Halley’s Comet?
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Edmond Halley
Edmond Halley, detail of an oil painting by Richard Phillips, c. 1720; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
The generally accepted date for the earliest recorded appearance of Halley’s Comet is 240 BCE. These observations were documented by Chinese astronomers. While some have speculated that a comet observed in Greece between 467 and 466 BCE may have been the same object, the 240 BCE sighting remains the earliest record that is widely accepted by the scientific community.1