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Comets
A comet is best described as a dirty snowball flying though space. It is
compiled of large ice chunks and dust. As the comet approaches the sun, the ice sublimes
into liquid forming the tail. For more information on the comet, please follow the link
below:
Comet Diagram NEW
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Comet
Utsunomiya-Jones
(8th magnitude)
This
comet is visible for observers in the Southern Hemisphere, while
Comet McNaught-Hartley is rapidly moving from southern to northern
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[Comet Hyakutake | Comet Hale-Bopp | Halley's Comet]
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(click image for larger view)
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Comet Hyakutake (officially designated C/1996
B2) was discovered by Yuji Hyakutake in Japan in January 1996. It was the brightest
comet visible from Earth since Comet West in 1976. It reached the brightness of a bright
star (approximately 0 magnitude) at the end of
March 1996, although the brightness was spread over a larger patch of sky than a star,
making it tougher to see.Perihelion distance: 0.23019 AU
Perihelion date: 01 May 1996 UT 09:30 (5:30 AM EDT)
Closest approach to Earth: 0.1 AU
Date of closest approach to Earth: 25 March 1996
Orbital inclination: 124.924 deg.
Orbital eccentricity: > 0.999784
Argument of perihelion: 130.165 deg.
Longitude of ascending node: 188.046 deg.
Pre-perihelion Orbital period: ~ 8,000 years
Post-perihelion Orbital period: ~ 14,000 years
Original Semi-major axis: ~ 400 AU
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(click image for larger view)
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| Comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995 01) was discovered on 23
July 1995 by two independent observers, Alan Hale (Cloudcroft, N.M.) and Thomas Bopp
(Stanfield, AZ), and is showing potential of putting on a spectacular display as it nears
its 1997 perihelion. The image above was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, and shows
material ejected from the rotating comet in a "pinwheel" pattern. The nucleus
of Hale-Bopp is estimated to be about 30 to 40 km across - Comet Halley's nucleus was
estimated at 8 x 8 x 16 km. The nucleus is exhibiting sudden brief eruptions and a complex
mottled surface. Its absolute magnitude of -1 makes it one of the brightest comets to
reach the inner solar system in history. Closest approach to Earth will occurred on 22
March 1997 at a distance of 1.3 A.U. It made for a spectacular view in the March morning
sky, and will be in the evening skies from mid-March to early May. Closest approach to the
Sun was on 31 March at a distance of .91 A.U. The comet is estimated to have last passed
by the Sun about 4200 years ago.
Perihelion distance: 0.9141 AU
Perihelion date: 01 April 1997 UT 03:19 (31 March 22:19 EST)
Closest approach to Earth: 1.3 AU
Date of closest approach to Earth: 22 March 1997
Next Perihelion: ~2380 years
Previous Perihelion: ~4200 years ago
Orbital inclination: 89.43 deg.
Orbital eccentricity: 0.9951
Argument of perihelion: 130.59 deg.
Longitude of ascending node: 282.47 deg.
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(click image for larger view)
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| Halley's Comet has been know since at least 240 BC and
possibly since 1059 BC. The most famous appearance was the night before the Battle of
Hastings in 1066 AD. It was named after Edmund Halley, who calculated its orbit. He
determined that the comets seen in 1531 and 1607 were the same object that followed a
76-year orbit to the far reaches of our universe. Unfortunately, Halley died in 1742,
never living to see his prediction come true when the comet returned on Christmas Eve of
1758. Halley's Comet put on bright shows in 1835 and in 1910. Then in 1984 and 1985,
five spacecraft from the USSR, Japan and Europe were launched to make a rendezvous with
Halley's Comet in 1986. One of NASA's deep space satellites was redirected to monitor the
solar wind upstream from Halley. Halley's Comet was one of three to be visited my
spacecraft. The nucleus of Halley's Comet is ellipsoidal in shape and measures
approximately 16 by 8 by 8 kilometers (10 by 5 by 5 miles).
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