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Back Comet Hale-Bopp

Comet Hale-Bopp


Depicts: Hale-Bopp
Copyright: H.A. Weaver (Applied Research Corp.), P.D. Feldman (The Johns Hopkins University), and NASA

These Hubble Space Telescope pictures of comet Hale-Bopp show a remarkable "pinwheel" pattern and a blob of free-flying debris near the nucleus. The bright clump of light along the spiral (above the nucleus, which is near the center of the frame) may be a piece of the comet's icy crust that was ejected into space by a combination of ice evaporation and the comet's rotation, and which then disintegrated into a bright cloud of particles.
Last Update: 1 September 2019
17-Jun-2026 19:28 UT

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