Where is Hale-Bopp now? The Great Comet of 1997 [
http://www.jpl.nasa…], one of the largest and most active comets ever, is outbound [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] about 400 million miles from the sun. Too faint for viewing without telescopes or binoculars, Hale-Bopp is presently positioned in the very southerly constellation of Pictor. This "negative" image [
http://www.eso.org/…] (black stars against white sky) of Hale-Bopp is the result of a 1 hour time exposure using the 1-metre European Southern Observatory [
http://search.eso.o…] Schmidt telescope on January 5. Clearly the comet still has a substantial tail [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…], blown by the solar wind [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…], that points generally away from the sunward direction. But look closely. A spiky "anti-tail" is also visible [
http://cfa-www.harv…] pointing toward the sun! It is likely that this anti-tail is composed of dust grains released from the comet nucleus [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] which are too large to be easily pushed by the solar wind. As Hale-Bopp recedes [
http://www.pha.jhu.…] from the sun its activity will subside but astronomers are still uncertain as to how long its tails will last. After a swing through the outer solar system and the Oort cloud [
http://www.windows.…], Hale-Bopp will pass through the inner solar system again ... around the year 5400.
Explanation
Where is Hale-Bopp now? The Great Comet of 1997 [
http://www.jpl.nasa…], one of the largest and most active comets ever, is outbound [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] about 400 million miles from the sun. Too faint for viewing without telescopes or binoculars, Hale-Bopp is presently positioned in the very southerly constellation of Pictor. This "negative" image [
http://www.eso.org/…] (black stars against white sky) of Hale-Bopp is the result of a 1 hour time exposure using the 1-metre European Southern Observatory [
http://search.eso.o…] Schmidt telescope on January 5. Clearly the comet still has a substantial tail [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…], blown by the solar wind [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…], that points generally away from the sunward direction. But look closely. A spiky "anti-tail" is also visible [
http://cfa-www.harv…] pointing toward the sun! It is likely that this anti-tail is composed of dust grains released from the comet nucleus [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] which are too large to be easily pushed by the solar wind. As Hale-Bopp recedes [
http://www.pha.jhu.…] from the sun its activity will subside but astronomers are still uncertain as to how long its tails will last. After a swing through the outer solar system and the Oort cloud [
http://www.windows.…], Hale-Bopp will pass through the inner solar system again ... around the year 5400.
Explanation
