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Comet Hale–Bopp (formally designated C/1995 O1) is a long-period comet that was one of the most widely observed of the 20th century and one of the brightest seen for many decades. [11] [12] [13] Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp discovered Comet Hale–Bopp separately on July 23, 1995, before it became visible to the naked eye.
Alan Hale (born 1958) [1] is an American professional astronomer, who co-discovered Comet Hale–Bopp along with amateur astronomer Thomas Bopp. [2]Hale specializes in the study of Sun-like stars and the search for extra-solar planetary systems, and has side interests in the fields of comets and near-Earth asteroids.
Thomas Joel Bopp (October 15, 1949 – January 5, 2018) was an American amateur astronomer. In 1995, he discovered comet Hale–Bopp; Alan Hale discovered it independently at almost the same time, and it was thus named after both of them. [1] At the time of the comet discovery he was a manager at a construction materials factory and an amateur ...
The most successful visual comet discoverer of all time was Jean-Louis Pons, who claimed to have discovered thirty-seven; the second most prolific was William Robert Brooks. The first woman known to have discovered comets was Caroline Herschel. The first telescopic discovery of a comet was made by Gottfried Kirch in 1680.
Today, comets are well understood as "dirty snowballs" in eccentric orbits around the Sun, but they continue as objects of scientific and popular fascination. In 1994, comet Shoemaker–Levy crashed spectacularly into the atmosphere of Jupiter. In 1997, a cult committed mass suicide inspired by the passage of comet Hale-Bopp.
Applewhite told them the comet Hale-Bopp was being trailed by an alien spacecraft and, if they died, they could board it. 38 people committed suicide. 20 years after the Heaven's Gate mass suicide ...
For example, Comet Hale–Bopp's designation is C/1995 O1. After their second observed perihelion passage, designations of periodic comets are given an additional prefix number, indicating the order of their discovery. [7] Halley's Comet, the first comet identified as periodic, has the systematic designation 1P/1682 Q1.
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.