APOD: Comet Hale-Bopp Over Val Parola Pass (2017 Apr 09)

[APOD Robot]

Comet Hale-Bopp Over Val Parola Pass

Explanation: Comet Hale-Bopp, the Great Comet of 1997, became much brighter than any surrounding stars. It was seen even over bright city lights. Away from city lights, however, it put on quite a spectacular show. Here Comet Hale-Bopp was photographed above Val Parola Pass in the Dolomite mountains surrounding Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. Comet Hale-Bopp's blue ion tail, consisting of ions from the comet's nucleus, is pushed out by the solar wind. The white dust tail is composed of larger particles of dust from the nucleus driven by the pressure of sunlight, that orbit behind the comet. Comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1) remained visible to the unaided eye for 18 months -- longer than any other comet in recorded history. This year marks the 20th anniversary of Comet Hale-Bopp's last trip to the inner Solar System. The large comet is next expected to return around the year 4385.

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[Boomer12k]

Hail, Hale-Bopp.....

Great Shot...

:---[===] *

[neufer]

The large comet is next expected to return around the year 4385.

• We'll be waiting.

[Chris Peterson]

I have a lot of fine film images taken of Hale-Bopp 20 years ago. They look quite a bit like this. And what they really bring home to me is just how terribly inferior film is for astronomical imaging, and how far we've come with imaging in recent years.

[sillyworm]

In the "large comet" link..it is mentioned that that Comet Hale-Bopp is spinning..once every 12 hours.This spin..will remain the same...has remained the same ..for some time? Can or will anything effect/change this spin in the future? Do all comets "spin"?

[Chris Peterson]

In the "large comet" link..it is mentioned that that Comet Hale-Bopp is spinning..once every 12 hours.This spin..will remain the same...has remained the same ..for some time? Can or will anything effect/change this spin in the future? Do all comets "spin"?

All bodies (not just comets) spin. The spin rate of comets can change, because of how the nucleus interacts with solar radiation and solar wind, because of how angular momentum is lost to ejected material, because of changing mass distribution while active, because of interactions with other bodies. But given the large size of Hale-Bopp's nucleus, and the fact that it spends most of its time far from the Sun, it's likely that its spin rate will not change very quickly or very much.

[Case]

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

The large comet is next expected to return around the year 4385.

We'll be waiting.

♫ In the year 9595 4385
I'm kinda wonderin' if man is gonna be alive
He's taken everything this old earth can give
And he ain't put back nothing ♫

[heehaw]

And what they really bring home to me is just how terribly inferior film is for astronomical imaging, and how far we've come with imaging in recent years.

Baked II-A0 plates (the baking increased their sensitivity from 1% to 3% as I recall, er, vaguely...

[geckzilla]

And what they really bring home to me is just how terribly inferior film is for astronomical imaging, and how far we've come with imaging in recent years.

Baked II-A0 plates (the baking increased their sensitivity from 1% to 3% as I recall, er, vaguely...

Meanwhile, over in the land of things we never knew we needed to kill and avoid being killed by other humans... http://kottke.org/17/04/incredible-low- ... t-into-day

[Stephen Wiggins]

Hale-Bopp was a "bright" comet yes, but West's Comet in March 1976 wins on brightness. We watched it slowly rise from about 3 am near Centralia, Washington. As it's large, multi-rayed tail faded in the dawn, the nucleus remained easily visible through the day as a tiny companion to the sun.