SpazeGreat comet of 1997
Hale-Bopp
Visible to the naked eye for a record 18 months in 1996–97. Its huge nucleus means it won’t be back for about 2,400 years.
- Size
- 60 km
- Orbit
- 2,354.8 years
- Distance from Sun
- 0.9 to 353.1 AU
- Reflects
- 4% of sunlight
Can we live on Hale-Bopp?
Air: only a faint trace of H₂O, CO, CO₂, Na, heavy water, far too thin to breathe. You’d live in sealed, pressurised habitats.
Ground: Ice and dust.
Atmosphere
- H₂O
- CO
- CO₂
- Na
- heavy water
Measured by ground and Hubble spectra