en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halley%27s_Comet
1 correction found
The confirmation of the comet's return was the first time anything other than planets had been shown to orbit the Sun.
This is too strong. Non-planetary bodies had already been shown to orbit the Sun before 1759, including the comet of 1680–1681 that Newton analyzed.
Full reasoning
This statement is incorrect because comets had already been shown to follow heliocentric orbits before Halley’s predicted return was confirmed in 1758–1759.
NASA’s Earth Observatory notes that Isaac Newton demonstrated that the comet seen in 1680 and 1681 followed the path of a parabola. A parabolic comet path is a heliocentric orbit, so by that point a non-planetary object had already been shown to move around the Sun.
What was genuinely new about Halley’s successful prediction was not proving for the first time that something besides planets orbited the Sun, but showing that a comet could be periodic and return on schedule. NASA’s history of Halley’s Comet explains that in 1705 Halley identified the 1531, 1607, and 1682 comets as the same object and correctly predicted its return in 1758.
So the 1759 confirmation was a landmark demonstration of periodic cometary return and of Newtonian gravitation, but it was not the first proof that a non-planetary body orbited the Sun.
2 sources
- Planetary Motion: The History of an Idea That Launched the Scientific Revolution - NASA Earth Observatory
NASA states: “Isaac Newton demonstrated his universal law of gravitation by showing that a comet visible during 1680 and 1681 followed the path of a parabola.”
- 955 Years Ago: Halley's Comet and the Battle of Hastings - NASA
NASA says that in 1705 Edmond Halley determined the comets of 1531, 1607, and 1682 were the same object and correctly predicted it would next appear in 1758.