German cartoon depicting Halley's comet causing the end of the world in May 1910. Halley's Comet orbits the Sun every 76 years. The 1910 approach was the first for which photographs exist and the first for which spectroscopic data were obtained. The comet made a relatively close approach, with the Earth actually passing through the tail on 18th May 1910. This led to widespread panic that the tail's gases would wipe out all life on Earth.