Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2022 April 8 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. Hale-Bopp: The Great Comet of 1997 Image Credit & [3]Copyright: [4]Stefan Seip ([5]TWAN) Explanation: Only twenty-five years ago, [6]Comet Hale-Bopp rounded the Sun and offered a dazzling spectacle in planet Earth's night skies. [7]Digitized from the original astrophoto on 35mm color slide film, this classic image of the Great Comet of 1997 was recorded a few days after its perihelion passage on [8]April 1, 1997. Made with a camera and telephoto lens piggy-backed on a small telescope, the 10 minute long, hand-guided exposure features the memorable [9]tails of [10]Hale-Bopp, a whitish dust tail and blue ion tail. Here, the ion tail extends well over ten degrees across the northern sky. In all, [11]Hale-Bopp was reported as visible to the naked eye from late May 1996 through September 1997. Also known as C/1995 O1, Hale-Bopp is recognized as one of the most compositionally [12]pristine comets to pass through the inner Solar System. A visitor from the distant [13]Oort cloud, the comet's next perihelion passage should be around the year 4380 AD. [14]Do you remember [15]Hale-Bopp? Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend __________________________________________________________________ [16]< | [17]Archive | [18]Submissions | [19]Index | [20]Search | [21]Calendar | [22]RSS | [23]Education | [24]About APOD | [25]Discuss | [26]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [27]Robert Nemiroff ([28]MTU) & [29]Jerry Bonnell ([30]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [31]Specific rights apply. [32]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [33]ASD at [34]NASA / [35]GSFC & [36]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2204/HaleBoppSeip_c4096.jpg 3. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 4. http://www.astromeeting.de/ 5. https://twanight.org/profile/stefan-seip/ 6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Hale–Bopp 7. https://photomeeting.de/galleries/comets/content/19970407a_large.html 8. https://earthsky.org/space/this-date-in-science-comet-hale-bopp/ 9. http://www2.ess.ucla.edu/~jewitt/tail.html 10. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap970320.html 11. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap970328.html 12. https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2106/ 13. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/oort-cloud/overview/ 14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070331.html 15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap950820.html 16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220407.html 17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 20. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 25. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=220408 26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220409.html 27. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 28. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 29. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 30. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 31. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 32. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 33. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 34. https://www.nasa.gov/ 35. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 36. http://www.mtu.edu/