The bright comet Hale-Bopp reveals all its beauty standing in the Milky Way during its perihelion in March 1997.
If the dinosaurs had escaped the extinction from the asteroid impact 65 million years ago, they would certainly have panicked in the face of the comet Hale-Bopp. But since we could calculate that this comet would not hit Earth, we could admire the fantastic beauty of this celestial phenomenon.
In early 1997, the comet was closest to Earth and stood in the constellation of Cygnus with the red North America Nebula. With a diameter exceeding 40 km, Hale-Bopp was about four times as large as the dinosaur killer.
Hale-Bopp was unique in many ways. It was the brightest comet in recent times, was visible to the naked eye for about 18 months, and emitted two separate tails pointing in different directions: a yellow dust tail and a blue plasma tail.