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 Here Comet
Hale-Bopp was photographed above Val Parola Pass in the blue ion
tail, consisting of ions from the is pushed out by the solar
wind. dust tail is composed of larger particles of dust from the
nucleus driven by the pressure of sunlight, that orbit behind
the 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. Credit & Copyright: A. Dimai, (Col Druscie
Obs.),