
Comet Hyakutake Seen On March 22nd 1996

by Science Photo Library
Title
Comet Hyakutake Seen On March 22nd 1996
Artist
Science Photo Library
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
Comet Hyakutake. Optical image showing Comet Hyakutake, one of the brightest comets to appear in the sky. Comets are bodies, mostly formed by water ice, which orbit the Sun with usually highly elongated orbits. When a comet approaches the Sun the water ice vaporises forming the coma, a cloud of gas and dust which can be up to 15 times the diameter of the Earth, and a tail. Comets have two types of tails: a gas tail (bluish here) which shows wisp and long filaments of excited gases, and a smooth and featureless dust tail (faint yellow) in which dust particles reflect sunlight. The image was taken on March 22st 1996.
Uploaded
September 16th, 2018
Embed
Share