These days, many of us look up at the night sky in quiet awe. To some, it may prompt them to wonder the meaning of life itself, while others find comfort in the endlessness of it all.

But it hasn’t always been this way.

Here’s three of the strangest and most dramatic moments when the stars kicked humanity into chaos and exponential terror.

Spooky season is officially here. So what better time to tell the tale of one of the most chilling – and some might say ‘hysterical’ – celestial events in history: the Blood-Red Comet of 1528.