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Comet Hyakutake on 24.3.96
Comet Hyakutake. Time exposure photograph of Comet Hyakutake, showing its bright head (coma) and long tail. Passing within 15 million kilometres of Earth, Hyakutake or 1996 B2 was one of the brightest comets to appear in the sky during the 20th century. Comets are mostly formed of ice and dust. They have a diameter of a few kilometres and go around the Sun in highly elongated orbits. It is only when a comet approaches the Sun that the ice vaporises to form a tail of gas and dust. This always points away from the Sun because it is blown by charged particles (the solar wind) which come out of the Sun. Photographed on 24 March 1996.
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