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Author
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Topic: What was it?
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Graysith
Chosen Daughter
Member # 27
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posted 08-18-2000 09:41 PM
     
Comets most certainly do "hang around" for a long time (relatively speaking) as these things are in orbit around the Sun, as are the planets. Some are brighter than others, depending on how many times they have orbited the sun (each time around, they lose parts of themselves, and get smaller and dimmer~ less reflective stuff there) Anyway, since they are in solar orbit, once they are bright enough to "catch our eye," we will see them in the sky many nights, just like we see Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Venus and Mercury ~ (losing sight of them when they duck behind the sun, of course!) The short, fast ones are the meteors: these are bits of comets or asteroids or sometimes the Moon or Mars that are attracted to earth. The "burn up" in our atmosphere as they fall to earth, thus are only short little streaks of light, which sometimes, if we are lucky, actually explode. I've seen that happen once, it's way cool! As soon as I can dig out my comet pics, I'll have them scanned and post them  Oh yes, I imagine the comet you were looking at was Comet Hale-Bopp; it came along about 4 years ago, and was absolutely spectacular. If it sticks in your mind as it obviously does, that was probably the one. (Although it may have also been Hyakutake; that one came just ahead of Hale-Bopp, about a year in advance. It was fast moving, and didn't hang around in our skies long.) ------------------
"I Ride the Stormcloud and the Night!"
[Edited 1 times, lastly by Graysith on August 18, 2000]
Posts: 3904 | From: Indianola, Iowa | Registered: Jul 2000 | Logged: 152.163.205.32
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