Large and exceptionally active comet, which in March 1997 made its closest fly-by to Earth since 2000
BC, coming within 190 million km/118 million mi. It has a nucleus of approximately 40 km/25 mi and an extensive gas coma (when close to the Sun Hale-Bopp released 10 tonnes of gas every second). Unusually, Hale-Bopp has three tails: one consisting of dust particles, one of charged particles, and a third of sodium particles.
Hale-Bopp was discovered independently in July 1995 by two US amateur astronomers, Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp.
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