In the December 12, 1996 page C 7 issue of the New York Times Science section there was an article about this new, spectacular comet, Hale/Bopp, in which it was reported that Astronomer Harold Weaver at the Applied Research Corporation took a photo of the nucleus of this comet. The phrase was that the jet-like out gassing from the comet was seen in a 'pinwheel photograph'. What was actually meant was that the photograph showed pinwheel-like jets coming out of the nucleus as seen in the Hubble Space Telescope photograph.
Evidently, this comet, now believed to be perhaps 5 times larger than Halley's Comet, is already starting to be very active even though it is over 130 million miles from the Sun. In the spring of 1997, it will reach perihelion about 86 million miles from the Sun, and some 135 million miles from the Earth, so astronomers are being cautious in predicting just how spectacular it will be for us in the sky, since it is ALREADY starting to shed matter.
Copyright 1997 Dr. Sten Odenwald
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