Harvard's IAU
PRESS INFORMATION SHEET: Comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp), by CfA
16 February, 1996
- A single, apparent image of the comet was found by astronomer Robert H. McNaught
of the Anglo-Australian Observatory from a wide-field photographic plate taken in
late April 1993 (when the comet was about 13 AU from both the sun and earth). This
observation has strengthened the orbital calculations by greatly extending the arc
of observation. It allows one to say that the comet has an orbital period of a few
thousand years and extends out to some ten times the distance of Neptune at its furthest
point.
