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NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

🌌 NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

Comet Hale-Bopp's Developing Tails Credit:

Date: 1997-03-14

Comet Hale-Bopp's Developing Tails
Credit:

View HD Image

Explanation:

Comet Hale-Bopp is living up to its expectations.
Besides the brightness of its coma,
a comet is typically remembered by the length of its tails.
As visible in the above picture
taken last week, Comet Hale-Bopp's
blue ion tail shows a dramatic extension,
with current reports
of about 20 degrees from dark locations. The comet's white dust
tail has so far shown a more modest extent but appears to be growing
significantly. Comet Hale-Bopp's closest approach to the Sun
occurs in about two weeks, and although it will not get much closer
to the Sun than does our Earth, Comet Hale-Bopp is likely to tell even more spectacular tails then.