comets

1996 and 1997 saw the appearance of two exceptional comets, Comet Hyakutake and Comet Hale-Bopp.

Bright naked-eye comets such as these are relatively rare, occurring at an average rate of about 5 per century over the last 2000 years. Comet Hyakutake (1996) and Comet Hale-Bopp (1997) were thebrightest comets to appear since Comet West in 1976. All of these comets were far brighter than the 1986 apparition of Halley's Comet (a relatively poor apparition for this more famous periodic visitor).