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Hale-Bopp: The Great Comet o
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| Title |
Hale-Bopp: The Great Comet of 1997 |
| Explanation |
Ten short years ago, Comet Hale-Bopp [ http://www.cometography.com/lcomets/1995o1.html ] rounded the Sun and offered a dazzling spectacle in planet Earth's night. This stunning view [ http://www.astropix.com/HTML/SHOWCASE/970401.HTM ], recorded shortly after the comet's perihelion passage on April 1, 1997, features the memorable tails [ http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~jewitt/tail.html ] of Hale-Bopp -- a whitish dust tail and blue ion tail. Here, the ion tail extends well over ten degrees across the northern sky, fading near the double star clusters [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060413.html ] in Perseus, while the head of the comet lies near Almach [ http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~kaler/sow/almach.html ], a bright star in the constellation Andromeda. Do you remember Hale-Bopp [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970416.html ]? The photographer's sons do, pictured in the foreground at ages 12 and 15. In all, Hale-Bopp [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970328.html ] was reported as visible to the naked eye from roughly late May 1996 through September 1997. |
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Comet Hale-Bopp and the Nort
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| Title |
Comet Hale-Bopp and the North America Nebula |
| Explanation |
Comet Hale-Bopp [ http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/comet/ ]'s 1997 encounter with the inner Solar System [ http://www.nineplanets.org/overview.html ] allowed many breath-taking pictures [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search?hale+bopp ]. Above [ http://www.skylook.net/album/comet/habo/hab3i.htm ], Comet Hale-Bopp was photographed crossing the constellation of Cygnus, sporting spectacular yellow dust and blue ion tails [ http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/faculty/jewitt/tail.html ]. Visible on the right in red is the North America Nebula [ http://www.seds.org/messier/xtra/ngc/n7000.html ], a bright emission nebula [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/emission_nebulae.html ] observable from a dark location with binoculars. The North America Nebula [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000501.html ] is about 1500 light-years [ http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/questions/question19.html ] away, much farther than the comet, which was only about 8 light minutes away. Several bright blue stars from the open cluster [ http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/messier/open.html ] M39 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040331.html ] are visible just above the comet's blue ion tail [ http://pwg.gsfc.nasa.gov/istp/events/halebopp/disconnect/ ]. |
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