Felice 2012! - Happy 2012!

C'è un aneddoto a proposito dell'astronomo Jaques Babibet e la Grande Cometa del 1861, raccontato da lui stesso. Una signora chiede all'astronomo:
S: Signore, i giornali dicono che abbiamo una cometa.
B: Sì, signora, una cometa bellissima; nella storia dell'astronomia non ve ne fu una più bella.
S: Che cosa predice la cometa?
B: Assolutamente nulla, signora.
S: Ed è bello?
B: Splendido, signora; e, se solo volete uscire in giardino, la potrete vedere.
S: Ah! Se non può fare né bene né male, non vale la pena di incomodarsi.
E, detto questo, la signora va a dormire.
Continua Babinet, "Mi si dirà: a che serve l'astronomia? Rispondo: serve a far sì che nel 1861 si possa andare a dormire senza timore, anche quando nel cielo vi è una splendida cometa. Non era così seicento o trecento anni fa."
[tratto da M. Rigutti, Comete, Rizzoli, 1984]

There is an anecdote about the astronomer Jacques Babinet and the Great Comet of 1861, said by he himself. A lady asks to the astronomer:
L: Sir, the newspapers report about a comet.
B: Yes, madam, a beautiful comet; no comet more beautiful than this one was ever recorded in the history of astronomy.
L: What does the comet predict?
B: Absolutely nothing, madam.
L: And is this beautiful?
B: It is wonderful, madam; and, if you just go in the garden, you can watch it.
L: Ah, if it can do neither good nor bad, there is no need to bother ourselves.
After having said this, the lady goes to bed.
Babinet continues, "One can say: what is the use of astronomy? I answer: it is useful so that in 1861 one can go to bed without fears, even when there is a wonderful comet in the sky. It was not so six or three hundred years ago."
[from M. Rigutti, Comete, Rizzoli, 1984]

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This old advertisement was published on the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera on May 17th, 1910. At that time, it was known that the Halley Comet should pass close to the Earth, which in turn passed through the comet's tail. Since it was known that in the tail there are cyanide molecules, which are toxic, there was a general panic attack, with several cases of suicides. This old advertisement can give an idea of the fears of that time: the well-known tires-producer Michelin released air bottles to survive to the passage of the comet.  The translation of the text is: 19 May 1910. A corner of a street, when the Earth will be invaded by pestilential miasmas of the Halley comet. Only the drivers equipped with the Michelin bottle, inflated with pure air, will breathe at their own pleasure.

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