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Comet Hyakutake (formally designated C/1996 B2) is a comet discovered on 31 January 1996. [1] It was dubbed the Great Comet of 1996 ; its passage to within 0.1 AU (15 Gm) of the Earth on 25 March was one of the closest cometary approaches of the previous 200 years.
Estimated time for Comet Hyakutake to return to the inner Solar System, after having travelled in its orbit out to its aphelion 3410 A.U. from the Sun and back. [159] 93,830 AD Sirius becomes once again the South Star, but at 2.3° of the south celestial pole. [158] March 27 and 28, 224,508 AD Respectively, Venus and then Mercury will transit ...
Even so, quite a few comets were lost because their orbits are also affected by non-gravitational effects such as the release of gas and other material that forms the comet's coma and tail. Unlike a long-period comet, the next perihelion passage of a numbered periodic comet can be predicted with a high degree of accuracy.
The comet became very bright in the night sky, and, as a result, it was seen by a large number of people around the world. The comet temporarily upstaged the long-awaited Comet Hale-Bopp, which was approaching the inner Solar System at the time, although Hyakutake was only at its brightest for a few days. Scientific observations of the comet ...
His first discovery was Comet C/1995 Y1, on December 26, 1995. [3] Hyakutake discovered C/1996 B2 while looking for C/1995 Y1, a comet he had discovered a few weeks before. [4] [5] He died in Kokubu, Kagoshima, in 2002 at age 51 of an aneurysm which had led to internal bleeding. [2] Asteroid 7291 Hyakutake is named after him. [6] [7]
A zoomed-in image of Comet 2022 E3 (ZTF) captured on Jan. 23, 2023. (Michael Borland) Celestial sleuths at th Comet E3 to make closest approach to Earth tonight
The nucleus is similar in size to Comet Hyakutake and many short-period comets such as 2P/Encke, 7P/Pons-Winnecke, 8P/Tuttle, 14P/Wolf, and 19P/Borrelly. [18] By July 5, NASA's Parker Solar Probe had captured an image of the comet, from which astronomers also estimated the diameter of the comet nucleus at approximately 5 km (3 mi). [19]
Hyakutake was the first comet I ever saw. Alleged to have been more impressive than Comet Hale-Bopp when it was at its brightest, it broke a 20 year drought of Great Comets, and turned up some very surprising results for cometary scientists. I've been working on this article over the last few weeks and I think it's near enough comprehensive now ...