Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 28 March 1997:
Vol. 275. no. 5308, pp. 1895 - 1896
DOI: 10.1126/science.275.5308.1895
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Perspectives

Dale P. Cruikshank

Comet Hale-Bopp is an unusually large and bright comet that will reach perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) in April 1997. In his Perspective, Cruikshank discusses observational results described in seven research reports in this issue of Science (see pages 1900, 1904, 1907, 1909, 1913, 1915, and 1918). Images from the Hubble Space Telescope indicate a large cometary nucleus, and measurements from the Infrared Satellite Observatory craft reveal the composition of the dust grains being discharged by Hale-Bopp. Radio telescope measurements have tracked the release of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and sulfur in various molecular species. Photometry shows that gas production is 20 to 100 times greater than any previously observed comet. Such observations may help unravel the puzzle of comet formation and the origins of organic matter in the universe.

The author is at the NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000, USA. E-mail: dale{at}ssa1.arc.nasa.gov

Also see the archival list of Enhanced Perspectives

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Vestiges of a beginning and the prospect of an end.
I. W. D. Dalziel (1999)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 150, 119-155
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)