March 22: The Hale-Bopp Comet

On this date in 1997 the Hale-Bopp comet made its closest approach to Earth. Here are 10 facts about it.

1. At one point, it was a thousand times brighter than Halley's Comet and easily visible even in light-polluted cities, making it one of the most viewed comets in history.
2. The closest it got to our planet was 120 million miles/193km away.
3. It was first discovered in July 1995 by two amateur astronomers called Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp, after whom it was named.
4. At the time it was discovered, it was the furthest comet to have been discovered by amateurs.
5. The nucleus of the comet measured 19-25 miles/30-40km across, and is made of ice and dust. During the time they had to study it, astronomers detected argon, heavy water and even organic chemicals. Its dust emissions varied which led to the theory that it actually had a binary nucleus.
6. It had three tails, a Blue one made of gas which pointed away from the Sun, a yellowish one made from dust which curved along its orbit and another made from sodium which was only visible using powerful Telescopes.
7. It captured the public imagination from the start. The Internet was a new thing at the time but a web page dedicated to it set up by NASA attracted as many as 1.2 million hits a day.
8. There was a cult calling themselves Heaven's Gate based in California, who believed they could abandon their bodies and move into a higher existence and the comet was a signal to them from the cosmos that it was time to do just that. They believed there was an alien space craft following the comet that would carry their souls away to this better existence (some amateur astronomers had observed what they called a "Saturn-like object" nearby so UFO speculation was rife, although professional astronomers claimed the object was a star). There were 39 of them, including their leader, Marshall Applewhite. In March 1997 they donned matching clothes and new sneakers, drank phenobarbital mixed with vodka and lay on their bunk beds to die.
9. Still others claimed to have received messages from aliens telling them the comet was a harbinger of the Apocalypse which would take place in May 2003 when "Planet X" would pass close to Earth and disrupt its rotation. When it didn't happen, the conspiracy theorists claimed the Apocalypse would happen in 2012 instead.
10. Will Hale-Bopp come back, like Halley's comet does? Yes, but not for thousands of years. Astronomers say the last time it was visible from Earth was 4,200 years ago. This would have been during the reign of the Pharoah Pepi II in Egypt. Writing in his pyramid makes reference to an "nhh-star" which was the Pharoah's heavenly companion. "Nhh" means long hair, so it could have been talking about the Hale-Bopp comet with its long tail.

My Books 

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The Ultraheroes series

Several new groups of superheroes, mostly British, living and working (mostly) in British cities like London and Birmingham. People discovering they have, and learning to live with, superpowers. Each book is complete in itself although there is some overlap of characters.

The Raiders series

A tale of two dimensions, and worm hole travel between the two. People displaced in both time and space, learning to get along and work together to find a way home while getting used to the superpowers wormhole travel gave them. A trilogy.

Golden Thread

A superhero tale with a difference. Five heroes from another dimension keep returning - whenever they return, they have a job to do and are a well-meshed team in order to do it. Until one time, something goes wrong...

Tabitha Drake series

A different kind of power - the ability to talk to dead people. Tabitha has it, and murder victims seek her out to make sure justice is done. Tabitha has this and a disastrous love life to cope with.

Short story collections

Some feature characters from the above novels, others don't. They're not all about superheroes. Some are creepy, romantic, funny.