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Comet Hale-Bopp
The Great Comet of 1997
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Observer: Maurice Clark
Location: Yericoin, Western Australia
Date: February 7, 2000
Earth Closest Approach: March 22, 1997 (1.315 AU)
Sun Closest Approach: April 1, 1997 03:14 UT (0.914 AU)
1 AU = 93 Million Miles = 150 Million Kilometers
"I predict that this could be the most viewed comet in all of human history."
- Daniel Green
"MOMMY, MOMMY, I saw the VOMIT!" - Anonymous 4-year old
On July 23, 1995, an unusually bright comet outside of Jupiter's orbit (7.15 AU!) was discovered
independently
by Alan Hale, New Mexico and
Thomas Bopp, Arizona. The new comet, designated C/1995 O1,
is the farthest comet ever discovered by amateurs and appeared
1000 times brighter than Comet Halley did at the same distance. Normally, comets are inert when they
are beyond the orbit of Jupiter, so it has been speculated that Comet Hale-Bopp
is either a rather large comet
or experienced a bright outburst (or both).
The comet is
the brightest comet since Comet West in 1976. From Hubble Space Telescope images,
the comet's diameter has been determined to be about 40 km. The Pic du Midi Observatory has
ascertained from their observations that the comet's rotation rate is 11.4 hours.
With over 5,100 images,
this site has the largest collection of Comet Hale-Bopp images in the world available
on the Internet.
The home page is maintained solely on the volunteer efforts of myself.
On March 28, 1997, this home page become the first NASA website to get over 1 million hits in a day, when
1.2 million hits were recorded. This has since been topped by the Mars Pathfinder home page when the spacecraft
landed on Mars on July 1997.
Ron Baalke
News Flash
- Five Years After Heaven's Gate Mass Suicide, Last Member Still Keeping Faith (Associated Press - March 26, 2002)
- A Lifelong Love of Night Sky Is Captured on Film (Los Angeles Times - October 8, 2001)
- La Silla Telescope Views Comet Hale-Bopp at 2 Billion Kilometers (ESO - March 6, 2001)
- Argon Find Bodes Well For Rosetta's Noble
Mission
(ESA - June 14, 2000)
- Astronomers Report The First Detection Of A Noble Gas In A Comet
(Southwest Research Institute - June 5, 2000)
- Comet Hale-Bopp May Have Formed Near Neptune (space.com - June 5, 2000)
- Chemistry Of Comet Hale-Bopp May Offer Clues About Early Solar System
(University of Massachusetts-Amherst - October 13, 1999)
- Comet Hale-Bopp -- Still Enormous! (ESO - June 29, 1999)
- SOHO Glimpses Far Side Of The Sun, Looks At Comet Hale-Bopp's Shadow
(European Space Agency - June 21, 1999)
- Comet Hale-Bopp Fails Emission Tests But Reveals Comet Origin
Goddard Space Flight Center (June 16, 1999)
- Astronomer Helps Pinpoint Birth/History of Hale-Bopp
University of Notre Dame (June 16, 1999)
- Earth's Water Probably Didn't Come From Comets (Caltech - March 18, 1999)
- Comet Hale-Bopp: A Cosmic Leftover? (Associated Press - March 18, 1999)
- Comets, Like Cars, Leave Carbon Monoxide In Their Wake (Arizona State University - February 18, 1999)
- New Observations Of Comet Hale-Bopp (ESO - October 22, 1998)
- Astronomers Look At Whether Comet Chemistry Can Reveal Clues About The Early Solar System
(University of Massachusetts-Amherst - June 10, 1998)
- 5,000th Comet Hale-Bopp Image (Ron Baalke - March 26, 1997)
- One Year Later, Heaven Gate's Suicide Leaves Only Faint Trail (CNN - March 25, 1998)
- Comet Hale-Bopp Holds Clues to Creation of Comet Ices (University of Massachusetts-Amherst - March 13, 1998)
- Overview of the First International Meeting About
Comet Hale-Bopp (Richard West - February 16, 1998)
- The Unusual Tails Of Comet Hale-Bopp
(European Southern Observatory - January 30, 1998)
- Shoemaker Ashes, Comet Hale-Bopp Photo Carried on Lunar Prospector (University of Arizona - January 6, 1998)
- Comet Hysteria Through The Centuries (Gary Kronk - March 28, 1997)
- Disliking The Internet (Scientific American - June 1997)
Recent Comet Hale-Bopp Images
Unless otherwise noted, all Comet Hale-Bopp images on this web page are
copyrighted by the person or organization who obtained the image, and are not
owned by JPL. If you wish to use any image in a publication or want to obtain hard
copies of the image, please contact the owner of the image.
- Clark Image (February 7, 2000)
- Griffin Image (November 11, 1999)
- Two European Southern Observatory Images (June 18, 1999)
- Bos Image (April 21, 1999)
- Bos Image (April 19, 1999)
- Bos Image (March 20, 1999)
- Bos Image (March 14, 1999)
- Garradd Image (March 10, 1999)
- Bos Image (March 1, 1999)
- Bos Image (February 22, 1999)
- Bos Image (February 18, 1999)
- Bos Image (February 17, 1999)
- Six Davis, Robertson, Treister Images (January 29-30, 1999)
- Garradd Image (December 11, 1998)
- European Southern Observatory Image (October 19, 1998)
- Two Garradd Images (May 23, 1998)
- Vodniza Image (March 20, 1998)
- Griffin Image (March 16, 1998)
- Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatory Animation (March 3, 1998)
- Brown Image (March 2, 1998)
JPL Home Page
Please direct any questions or comments about this Home Page to
Ron Baalke
ron@jpl.nasa.gov
What's New (Last Updated March 26, 2002)