Biography: Edmund Halley | English astronomer.

(Edmund or Edmond Halley; London, 1656 - Greenwich, Britain, 1742) English astronomer. He was the first to catalogue the stars of the southern sky, in his work Catalogus stellarum australium. In 1682 he observed and calculated the orbit of the Comet that bears his name, and announced his return for the end of 1758, in accordance with his theory that defending the existence of comets of elliptical trajectory associated with the solar system. In the most important of his works, Synopsis cometicae astronomiae (1705), applied the laws of Newton motion to all available data on comets. Among other contributions in the field of astronomy, he demonstrated the existence of proper motion in stars, which reduced the validity of observations more ancient, and studied the complete revolution of the moon over a period of eighteen years. His astronomical tables, where he worked until his death, were in force for many years.

Edmund Halley

Collaborator of Newton in his work on gravitational attraction between bodies, Edmund Halley was the first astronomer in predicting the return of comets periodically near the ground; his surname gave name to the most famous of them. Well-to-do social extraction, devoted himself from his youth to mathematics and astronomy. In 1676 he embarked towards the island of Santa Elena, in the South Atlantic; There he would conduct the first cataloging of the stars of the southern sky.

His work opened the doors of scientific English and society, a project of developing a theory about Gravitation and movement of Astral bodies, he came into contact with Isaac Newton. Dialogue and cooperation between both scientists led to the conception of the famous law of gravity, which appeared in the book Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica (principles of mathematical natural philosophy, 1687) Newton, who own Halley wrote and sponsored face to the editors of the work.

As a continuation of his work on astronomy, and applying Newton's laws, described the parabolic orbits of a total of twenty-four comets in his book Synopsis cometicae astronomiae (synopsis of Astronomy of comets, 1705), and proved that the comets that have been observed in the years 1531, 1607, and 1682 were actually the same Comet returns. Of that same Comet, which later would be called the Comet Halley in his honor, he predicted that he would return in the year 1758. Sixteen years after the death of Edmund Halley, the astronomers found the total accuracy of his prediction.

Extracted from the website: Biografías y Vidas