Edmond Halley (1656–1742)

Born in London, England, Edmond Halley was the son of a wealthy English businessman and a lifelong friend of Sir Isaac Newton. Halley is most famous for his recognition that the periodic appearance of several bright comets was actually the same object, now called Halley's Comet. He supported his show more claim when he successfully predicted that the comet would reappear in 1758. (The comet reappears about every 76 years.) Halley made many other significant contributions to science. For example, he played a key role in the publication of Newton's major work, the Principia, in 1687; he established the distance between earth and the sun through measurements of the transit of Venus; and he was the first to discover stellar motion across the sky. Halley's studies of terrestrial magnetism and his demonstration that solar heating causes the trade winds and monsoons laid the foundation for the science of geophysics. He also was a diplomat and was deputy controller of the Mint in 1696. (Bowker Author Biography) show less