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Comet Hale-Bopp with open cluster M34

auteur: B.&S.Fletcher/Novapix

référence: a-com02-00027

Image Size 300 DPI: 26 * 36 cm

This is the beautiful Comet Hale-Bopp as it as it passed by (from our point of view) the star cluster M34 in April of 1997. The solid portion or nucleus of the comet is made up of ice, frozen gases, dust and small rock. Compared to most comets Hale-Bopp is very large - about 35 kilometers in diameter. As its orbit brought it closer to the sun, the frozen mass began to melt and a coma, which is a gaseous cloud, developed around the nucleus. This coma has grown to be hundreds of thousands of miles in diameter. Finally the tail developed which became millions of miles long.

Keywords for this photo:

1997 - ASTRONOMY - COMET - HALE-BOPP - M34 - NGC 1039 - OPEN CLUSTER - PERSEUS - STAR - STAR CLUSTER -