                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    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

                     Hale-Bopp: The Great Comet of 1997
                Image Credit & Copyright: Stefan Seip (TWAN)

   Explanation: Only twenty-five years ago, Comet Hale-Bopp rounded the
   Sun and offered a dazzling spectacle in planet Earth's night skies.
   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 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 tails of 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, 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 pristine comets to pass through the inner
   Solar System. A visitor from the distant Oort cloud, the comet's next
   perihelion passage should be around the year 4380 AD. Do you remember
   Hale-Bopp?

                      Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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