What does the name Halley's comet means?

Answer 1

Halley's Comet had been recorded every 76 years or so since about 200 BC; Edmund Halley was the first person to realize that the comets of 1531, 1607 and 1682 were in fact the SAME comet coming back again and again, and he predicted that the comet would again be visible in 1758. Edmund Halley himself did not live to see the comet's scheduled return, but in his honor the comet was named "Halley's Comet".

A comet is a small, cold object in orbit round our sun. Every so often its orbit brings the comet close to the sun. A comet consists largely of ices. When it gets close to the sun these ices become vapour. The pressure of the solar wind and the light from the sun blow these vapours away from the sun, giving the comet a long tail. This tail is illuminated by sunlight and is often easily visible to the naked eye.

Its name comes from Edmond Halley, an English astronomer who saw it in 1682, and recognised it as a periodic comet which had been passing close to the sun every 76 years for hundreds of years.