comets

Before the seventeenth century, comets were considered portents-warning shots fired at a sinful Earth from the right hand of an avenging God. However, in the post-Newtonian era, when their paths were understood to intersect that of the Earth, they were considered actual agents of destruction. Experts have described comets as the carriers of both life-seeds to the early Earth and horrific missiles that will one day snuff out life as we know it. At one …

…have linked comets to dragons breathing fire into the atmosphere, and viewers can readily see this while observing these celestial spheres (as cited in Vogt1993 p. 25). Both amateur and professional astronomers relayed heavily on enthusiastic reports of their observations on Comet Hayukutake when it appeared for several days in March of 1996. The comet provided clear observations of its gas jets, fans and rare disconnection event as it moved towards the sun. (as cited in rosat-goc-comet).