Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Comet Hyakutake Passes the Earth

Explanation: In 1996, an unexpectedly bright comet passed by planet Earth. Discovered less than two months before, Comet C/1996 B2 Hyakutake came within only 1/10th of the Earth-Sun distance from the Earth in late March. At that time, Comet Hyakutake, dubbed the Great Comet of 1996, became the brightest comet to grace the skies of Earth in 20 years. During its previous visit, Comet Hyakutake may well have been seen by the stone age Magdalenian culture, who 17,000 years ago were possibly among the first humans to live in tents as well as caves. Pictured above near closest approach as it appeared on 1996 March 26, the long ion and dust tails of Comet Hyakutake are visible flowing off to the left in front of a distant star field that includes both the Big and Little Dippers. On the far left, the blue ion tail appears to have recently undergone a magnetic disconnection event. On the far right, the comet's green-tinted coma obscures a dense nucleus of melting dirty ice estimated to be about 5 kilometers across. A few months later, Comet Hyakutake began its long trek back to the outer Solar System. Because of being gravitationally deflected by massive planets, Comet Hyakutake is not expected back for about 100,000 years.

11 comments:

Stardust said...

This would be one spectacular sight to see.

tina FCD said...

I agree!
Funny, I played a video game that had three sisters in it, one was Hyakutake. :)

CyberKitten said...

Merry Christmas Stardust.....

Stardust said...

You too, Cyberkitten. I am planning on posting regularly again starting this week.

Stardust said...

Cyberkitten, love the pic of the kitty on your latest post.

CyberKitten said...

stardust said: Cyberkitten, love the pic of the kitty on your latest post.

Thanks. It's just too cute isn't it?

BTW - I'm intending to be a little more.... provocative.... this coming year. I hope you enjoy some of the fireworks [grin]

Stardust said...

Cyberkitten, looking forward to it and can't wait to get back at it, myself. I am all fired up again.

CyberKitten said...

Happy New Year Stardust.

Tommykey said...

Looks like a fluorescent golf ball.

Stardust said...

It does, doesn't it~ Happy New Year, Tommy,Cyberkitten, Tina and all.

Stardust said...

Would you guys believe that I now blog on a 106 inch projection screen? LOL...seriously! We have a computer hooked up to our projection tv with a wireless keyboard and mouse. It's awesome!