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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. [citation needed] Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp discovered Comet Hale–Bopp separately on July 23, 1995, before it became visible to the naked eye.
This is a list of comets (bodies that travel in elliptical, parabolic, and sometimes hyperbolic orbits and display a tail behind them) listed by type. Comets are sorted into four categories: periodic comets (e.g. Halley's Comet), non-periodic comets (e.g. Comet Hale–Bopp), comets with no meaningful orbit (the Great Comet of 1106), and lost comets (), displayed as either P (periodic), C (non ...
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.
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.
The Oort Cloud comet called C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS will make its first close pass by Earth in mid-October and won’t be back for another 80,000 years. ... comet Hale-Bopp, in 1997, which was ...
More recently, during the passage of Halley's Comet in 1910, Earth passed through the comet's tail, and erroneous newspaper reports inspired a fear that cyanogen in the tail might poison millions, [233] whereas the appearance of Comet Hale–Bopp in 1997 triggered the mass suicide of the Heaven's Gate cult. [234]
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.
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 ...