Great comet
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A great comet is a comet that becomes exceptionally bright and easily observable to the naked eye. There is no official definition; the term is often attached to comets such as Halley's Comet, which,
Comet McNaught as the Great Comet of 2007
The Great Comet of 1680 over Rotterdam as painted by Lieve Verschuier
Comet Hale–Bopp
Hyakutake Color
Comet Hale–Bopp
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Comet Hale–Bopp is a long-period comet that was one of the most widely observed of the 20th century and one of the brightest seen for many decades.
Great comet
…fulfilling all three of those criteria will certainly be very bright. Sometimes, a comet failing on one criterion will still be bright. For example, Comet Hale–Bopp did not approach the Sun very closely but had an exceptionally large and active nucleus. It was visible to the naked eye for several months and was…
Comet Hale–Bopp, shortly after passing perihelion on April 4, 1997; the gas tail is to the left and the dust tail to the right.
Comet Hale–Bopp in 2001, at a distance of nearly 2.0 billion km (1.2 billion mi) from the Sun.