Comet Hyakutake

From ArticleWorld

The Comet Hyakutake was first discovered in January 1996. This comet then passed very close to Earth in the month of March of that same year. The comet was deemed to be the Great Comet of 1996 but the comet was only at its brightest for a few days. The observation of this comet led to many discoveries as it was able to be studied at a closer range than any other comet in the past 200 years.

One discovery was of the X-rays emitted from the comet and believed to be caused by ionized solar wind particles that interacted with neutral atoms in the coma of the comet. The spacecraft called the Ulysses also crossed the tail of the comet without the knowledge of observers. This was later detected and showed that this comet had the longest recorded tail of any comet. This comet has a very long periodic time. The comet had an orbital period of 15,000 years but this has increased to 72,000 years due to the giant planets.

Discovery

The comet is named for its discoverer Yuji Hyakutake, an amateur astronomer. He discovered the comet in January of 1996. He was actively searching for comets for some time and moved to an area known for its dark skies. He used a powerful set of binoculars and was scanning the skies the night of the discovery. This comet was actually the second Comet Hyakutake as he had discovered the first a few weeks before. The first never became visible to the naked eye but when he was observing his first discovery he found the second one.

The comet

The orbit of this comet was estimated as close as 0.1 AU from Earth. This meant that this comet was a possible Great Comet. The comet was also determined to have passed close to the Sun several times before making it likely the comet would be bright. When the comet became visible to the naked eye in March of 1996 it seemed unremarkable as it was not very bright however as it approached closer to Earth it rapidly became brighter and the tail grew in length. The comet was one of the brightest objects in the sky and was bluish-green in color with a very long tail. As the comet was only bright for a few days it did not have the time to grow in popularity as the Comet Hale-Bopp did the next year.