Halley's Comet below the Milky Way, artwork. This is a scene from 1986, the last time this comet was seen from Earth. Halley's Comet orbits the Sun roughly every 76 years. Edmund Halley (1656-1742) discovered this regular behaviour, and the comet is named for him. It will return to the inner Solar System in 2061. Comets are bodies of ice and dust from the outer solar system. The ices boil near the Sun, and the evaporated material forms a tail, streaming away from the Sun. This tail can be many millions of kilometres long and can be very bright.