Friday, April 17, 2015

Comet Hale Bopp Over Val Parola Pass

Comet Hale Bopp Over Val Parola Pass: APOD: 2012 December 23 - Comet Hale Bopp Over Val Parola Pass


Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2012 December 23


See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
Comet Hale-Bopp Over Val Parola Pass

Image Credit & Copyright: A. Dimai, (Col Druscie Obs.), AAC
Explanation: Comet Hale-Bopp, the Great Comet of 1997, became much brighter than any surrounding stars. It was seen even over bright city lights. Away from city lights, however, it put on quite a spectacular show. Here Comet Hale-Bopp was photographed above Val Parola Pass in the Dolomite mountains surrounding Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. Comet Hale-Bopp's blue ion tail, consisting of ions from the comet's nucleus, is pushed out by the solar wind. The white dust tail is composed of larger particles of dust from the nucleus driven by the pressure of sunlight, that orbit behind the comet. Observations showed that Comet Hale-Bopp's nucleus spins about once every 12 hours. A comet that may well exceed Hale-Bopp's peak brightness is expected to fall into the inner Solar System next year.

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