Comet Hale-Bopp

The comet was discovered independently on July 23, 1995, by two American observers: Alan Hale, watching from his driveway in New Mexico, and Thomas Bopp, using a friend's telescope near Phoenix. Their shared name stuck, and as it approached the sun the object brightened into what became known as the Great Comet of 1997.

What set Hale-Bopp apart was how long and how well it could be seen. Thanks to its unusually large nucleus, it remained visible to the naked eye for a record of roughly 18 months, with final sightings in December 1997. It passed its closest point to the sun on April 1, 1997, glowing brightest in the first days of that month, and by April 9 an estimated 69 percent of Americans had seen it — one of the most widely observed comets of the 20th century. For millions it was simply the bright star-with-a-tail their parents pointed out over the backyard.

The comet also had a dark shadow. In March 1997, 39 members of the Heaven's Gate group died in a mass suicide, having come to believe that a spacecraft was traveling behind Hale-Bopp and that leaving their bodies would let them reach it. The tragedy became inseparable from the comet's memory — a somber footnote to what was otherwise a rare moment of the whole country looking up at the same thing.