Comet Hale-Bopp Expected to Give Colorful Show in the Predawn Sky

Comet Hale-Bopp is now visible to the naked eye in the predawn eastern sky and promises to be one of the brightest comets of the century, according to astronomers at the Griffith Observatory.

By mid-March, the comet will start appearing in the northwestern evening sky, where it will be visible until May. Scheduled to make its closest pass to the sun on April 1, it should hit peak brightness during the weeks before and after that date. The mountain-size hunk of ice and rock is already shooting out streamers of gas and dust boiled off as it approaches the sun. The blue tail is composed of charged particles, while the broad whiter tail is composed of dust particles lit by the sun. As many as nine streamers have been seen through telescopes.