Comet Hyakutake

The comet Hyakutake (official name: C/1996 B2 ) is a long-period comet that was observed in 1996 with the naked eye. He was also known as The Great Comet of 1996.

Discovery

The comet was discovered on January 30, 1996 by the Japanese amateur astronomer Yuji Hyakutake. It was the second known under this name comet. The first, C/1995 Y1, was discovered by Hyakutake only a few weeks before. As he watched his first comet - this was never freiäugig visible - he found to his great surprise, this second comet to almost the same position, where he had already discovered the first.

Orbit

Visibility

Already the first track determinations showed that the comet would pass very close to Earth, at a distance of only 0.109 astronomical units. Since the 1995 discovered Comet Hale -Bopp was already announced as a possible large comet, astronomers needed, however, some time to be clear about that Hyakutake would be a spectacular appearance.

Since Hyakutake few days at its greatest brightness was visible, he could not so much on how to steer the comet Hale- Bopp in the following year the public interest. In addition, many European observers were not able to observe the comet at its brightest days due to unfavorable weather conditions. Many people who saw both the comet Hyakutake and Hale- Bopp, Hyakutake held for more impressive appearance.

The Ulysses spacecraft flew unplanned and unexpectedly in May 1996 by the tail of the comet. Based on this event, the tail length was determined to be at least 500 million kilometers. Observations of the Earth noted the existence of ethane and methane in the comet. It was the first time that these two gases were detected in comets. With the X-ray satellite ROSAT was also found that Hyakutake emits X-rays, which was also observed at even any other comet. Radar measurements of the Goldstone Observatory showed that the nucleus was only 2 km across. Observations with the Hubble Space Telescope revealed that small fragments broke off the comet nucleus, which then trained their own, short tails.