A king among comets; Hale-Bopp, a massive comet traveling through our solar system, is expected to provide a spectacular light show in coming months as the 25-mile-wide ball of ice and rock and its impressive tail increase in brightness.(NEWS)

From: Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) | Date: January 23, 1997| Author: | Copyright information

After 4,000 years of sailing through deep space, comet Hale-Bopp, a massive mountain of ice and rock, is returning to the inner solar system, and during the next few months promises to put on a spectacular nighttime show.

The comet, with a nucleus believed to be about 25 miles across, is already visible as an elongated fuzzball in the eastern sky at about 6:30 a.m.

Astronomers are usually cautious in predicting how visible a comet will be because some recent ones fizzled out. Hale-Bopp seems as close as you can get to an astronomical sure thing.

In the country it can ...

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