in January, 1997!Archival Issues #31 til 40 of Jan. 23 til March 26, 1996
Compiled and written by Daniel Fischer, Skyweek - older "Mirrors" in the Archive
in January, 1997!
Update # 40 of March 26th, 1997, at 22:15 UTC
Next, optical astronomers looked at that spot in the sky (for the first time 21 hrs after the burst) and at first saw only a collection of seemingly ordinary galaxies. But 8 days later one of them had faded dramatically: Was this the site of the burst, where an early optical counterpart had now vanished, leaving only its host galaxy's meager light behind? At the moment it is probably to early to firmly link the gamma/x-ray source with this remarkable "optical transient", but this is the first time that one ever has been observed virtually at the same time as the high energy burst!
What would a firm identification of the galaxy with the burster prove? There has been a dynamic debate about the nature of these sources, with wild ideas ranging from very close to extremely distant sources. The "cosmological hypothesis" would be the winner, but the actual mechanism of the then extremely energetic burst would remain largely mysterious. As one astrophysicist puts it, "there are hardly any serious theories..." But to know where the burst originated would be a welcome start! (Science March 21st, 1997, p. 1738, and many other sources)
On Feb. 26th, the dewar of the MSX satellite ran dry and its SPIRIT III telescope ceased operations. It had been primarily an experimental military instrument but with many astronomical spin-offs, most remarkably perhaps IR images of a Total Lunar Eclipse.
ESA's got a new director general: Antonio Rodota from Italy,\ who is currently serving with several large aerospace companies. ( ESA Press Release # 10 of March 20, 1997) And Russia has a new 'spaceport', although the converted former ICBM site in the Far East at Svobodny can handle only mobile launch platforms at the moment (namely the Start 1 rocket; the first launch succeeded on March 4th). But later more and more of Russia's commercial space launches shall move here.
The first attempt of amateurs shoot a rocket into space from a ballon has been scrubbed for safety reasons on March 22nd: Check the website of the project for updates and further plans. Meanwhile NASA is showing off recently declassified spy sat images - how times have changed...
Hale-Bopp has now -1.0 magnitudes - and the best viewing window of all has begun, with the moon out of the evening sky and the comet high in the Northwest after sunset for all of the Northern hemisphere. The happenings on the scientific front have once more been summarized by ESO. Not only is the public interest peaking now: A series of rocket launches devoted to UV studies of the comet is beginning.
Update #39 of March 18, 1997, at 16:15 UTC
The comet is now shining at magnitude -0.7, and has a plasma tail of about 25 degrees and a dust tail of almost 10 degrees. Their visibility depends strongly on the darkness of the sky, however, but even from the middle of Moscow several degrees of dust tail were visible to the naked eye last week (see our expedition report at "E" + 3 days). Both the plasma and the dust tail are now showing lots of structures as countless images on the web document (for particularly aesthetic ones look here). Of particular interest is the appearance of synchrones in the dust tail which are rarely observed in a comet not very close to the sun.
The biggest surprise for amateur observers with all kinds of equipment, however, are the very well defined dusty enveloppes around the nucleus which can be seen in the smallest telescopes and are an interesting challenge for image processing experiments. Day after day new WWW pages dedicated to Hale-Bopp are appearing, e.g. by ESA, the Univ. of Wisconsin or the German Vereinigung der Sternfreunde. But the view of the real comet still beats all cyber-efforts...
The Hubble Space Telescope is coming back to live again after the successful 2nd servicing mission. The first instrument operative again was the WFPC2 which delivered an image of a planetary nebula. The two new instruments are already undergoing tests, and while they are more susceptible to radiation interference from the South Atlantic Anomaly than anticipated, their focus settings seem to be quite good - first results could be available by late April.
The big antenna of the radio astronomy satellite HALCA is open! Already in April the first test observations can begin.
The Lunar Prospector and Huygens spacecraft are ready! Almost simultaneously the cheap NASA lunar orbiter and the Titan lander which will fly on Cassini to Saturn were completed in the U.S. and Germany. Their launch dates nearly coincide as well: The Prospector goes on Sept. 24 on a LMLV2, Cassini on Oct. 6 on a Titan IVB.
Mars meteorite structures formed under cool conditions after all? Two new studies question one of the main objections agaist the famous structures in ALH84001 being biogenic. Isotope as well as paleomagnetic evidence seems to point at a formation of the carbonate globules at low temperatures, which would be at least compatible with (primitive) life being involved. Stay tuned: There will be yet another NASA news conference on Martian meteorites tomorrow.
Update #38 of Feb. 28, 1997, at 18:15 UTC
Gray had claimed that the 39 high-resolution spectra he took of the star between 1989 and 1996 do not show the hitherto-claimed Doppler effect of absorption lines moving back and forth with a period of 4 days. This clean sinusoidal effect had been widely accepted as evidence of a planet tugging on the star while orbiting it closely. Instead, Gray sees in his data a periodical change in the shape of the lines which otherwise stay in place. And that could mean that the star has no planet but is oscillating itself - but in a very peculiar manner.
Unfortunately (for Gray) there exists no mechanism in stellar theory that could explain the strictly periodic line shape changes he sees in his data - and this is only one of many strong objections raised against Gray's paper. Just one example: Every oscillation process, however exotic, should cause 51 Peg's brightness to flicker - but the star's light is as steady as it can be. Or: Why should a solar-type star behave that strangely which our sun (and most other stars) don't do it?
At this moment both sides call each other names in media interviews and promise that the 'enemy' will concede defeat within one year. Other astrophysicists with no stake in the controversy say, however, that Gray's objections must be taken seriously enough to repeat his measurements with better signal-to-noise. When 51 Peg can be observed well again later this year, it will be the center of much attention.
While Pioneer 11's energy ran out in 1995, Pioneer 10 still responds to commands from the ground (the round-trip light time is now 18 hrs as the distance approaches 10 billion kilometers!) and keeps its high-gain antenna pointed at Earth. Only a few of the 11 instruments on-board do still work, but their data about interplanetary space are valued. And at times Pioneer 10 is also used for training young flight controllers who will at one time 'run' the new Discovery-class missions.
Robert Herman dead at 82, predicted Cosmic Background Radiation: Together with Ralph Alpher and George Gamow, Herman in 1948 concluded that there should be residual radiation from the Big Bang all over the sky. The predicted "3 K background" was found indeed in the 1960's (albeit by chanvce) - and is still one of the central topics of cosmology.
A delay in the launch of the 1st component of the International Space Station seems now inevitable, NASA's Dan Goldin has conceded: It just wouldn't make sense to go ahead with the FGB and Node 1 - and then wait for many months before the much-delayed Russian Service Module or a replacement are ready. U.S. politicians are not amused...
Update #37 of Feb. 25, 1997, at 18:15 UTC
Meanwhile there is growing evidence that one booster was to blame in the Delta-2 accident on Jan. 17. The strange line of dark brown color that suddenly appeared on one of the solid fuel boosters was apparently an indication for a major malfunction, probably some thermal effect (not smoke as believed initially). The USAF which is leading the investigation remains tight-lipped, however, and leaves even open the possibility that the precise cause of the explosion will never be found. (AW&ST Jan. 24, 1997, p. 24)
However an interesting proposal is on the table that might barely allow for a full reflight of the Cluster constellation: Fly the satellites on Russian Soyuz rockets instead! This would a) be affordable and b) save so much money that ESA itself could pay for part of the instrumentation. For the next 4 weeks this proposal will be checked in detail. If this "Option 1" is approved in April, there will be a full reflight of all four Cluster satellites.
If not, work on an "Option 2" will start immediately. This would be a semi-revival of Cluster with the Phoenix satellite (the "5th" original Cluster s/c already under construction) just getting some miniature companion satellites. Other interesting news from the SPC Meeting: The mission of the SOHO satellite will be extended by 5 years to 2003, and Europe's first cosmology satellite COBRAS/SAMBA has been renamed Planck. (Interview with ESA's science spokesman, Jan. 24, 1997)
The Russian rover would play a role in the now accelerated NASA plans for a Mars sample return mission in 2005. Both it and two NASA rovers to be launched to Mars in 2001 and 2003 would collect interesting rock samples into three or more heaps. And then mission planners for the 2005 flight (which might feature some Russian hardware as well) can decide which rock collection is the most interesting one and pick it up. (AW&ST Feb. 17, 1997, p. 55)
Did a German particle accelerator discover a problem with the standard model of elementary particles? News like these have come and gone repeatedly in recent years and esp. 1996, but the announcement from DESY is taken rather seriously. New runs should clarify the picture by October.
Milestones: The 1000th episode of Star Hustler, a unique weekly astronomy show on U.S. TV, was broadcast recently ... The National Astronomy Meeting 1997 takes place in Southampton in April and will feature a public exhibition and talk by Mike Malin on his astrophotographical achievements ... And the Scientific American has finally figured out how to bring "Order from Chaos" on the Internet.
Update #36 of Feb. 21, 1997, at 21:45 UTC
Pyrolobus fumarii lives next to a Black Smoker which are among the hottest hydrothermal vents (an integral component of the formation of the Earth's crust), 3.7 km below the ocean surface, and feeds from hydrogen, sulfur compounds and nitrates. Usually extremophiles are highly adapted to their environment, by P. fumarii can live in both oxygen-rich and poor environments.
Such a versatile and indestructible organism could survive in other planetary regimes in the solar system as well: The range of environments suitable for life has expanded, thanks to the new organism ("our super-hot baby", as Stetter calls it) - and exobiologists are taking note. The probability of life in the supposed ocean of Jupiter's moon Europa (which was again visited by Galileo yesterday) is now greater than ever: There could be comparable hydrothermal vents on the bottom of it, too - and similarly hot vents could also exist on Mars. (Science Feb. 14, 1997, p. 933, Interview with Stetter Feb. 20, 1997)
As expected the Space Summit has been canceled as neither the U.S. Congress nor the White House were interested in such a discussion anymore, now that the NASA budget seems to be stable for the coming years. Some grassroots groups of space activists would still have appreciated some fundamental discussions.
Hale-Bopp is still close to magnitude 1.0 and has a plasma tail of more than 10 degrees plus a dust tail of several degrees - beautiful pictures from Feb. 16th and 18th are worth looking at. And NASA is even experimenting with a Near-Live Comet Watching System, which lacks input, however, at this point. Once good images are in, they deserve further processing by rotational shift differencing - and if you want to know what the solar wind actually is that makes the plasma tail possible, there is an interesting primer.
Update #35 of Feb. 17, 1997, at 15:30 UTC
Working high over the cargo bay of space shuttle Discovery, with the cloud-covered Earth as a backdrop, Gregory Harbaugh and Joe Tanner had fitted insulation blankets over two rips in Hubble's protective Teflon cover. The work had been a last-minute add-on to the work scheduled for the fourth spacewalk of the mission.
During the 3rd EVA the other pair of astronauts, Mark Lee and Steve Smith, had completed three upgrade tasks to the telescope, including the challenging replacement of a data interface unit that allows the various parts of Hubble to "talk" with one another. On the 2nd EVA, Harbaugh and Tanner (for whom this was his first spacewalk ever) had upgraded a Fine guidance sensor and also installed an electronics enhancement kit for the new sensor and replaced a broken data recorder.
Most importantly, however, on the first EVA Gregory Harbaugh and Joe Tanner had thrown out the old spectrographs of Hubble (incidentally the GHRS had failed just one week earlier) and replaced them by the new IR camera NICMOS and the 2-D spectrograph STIS. Initial tests of both 2nd generation instruments showed them to be in good health - and their first results will probably be presented in early May.
The VSOP satellite was successfully launched from the Kagoshima Space Center at 13:50 JST on Wednesday February 12th. HALCA's first pass over the Kagoshima Space Center after launch occurred after 8 pm JST on the 12th, and during the pass it was confirmed that the solar paddles and Ku-band antenna had deployed correctly. All four M-V-1 rocket stages had fired successfully during the launch, and the satellite was successfully placed in an orbit with an apogee height of 21 000 km and a perigee height of 220 km. The series of perigee raising maneuvers will continue for a few more days.
The second perigee-raising maneuver was successfully completed in the early hours of Feb. 17, and the next few satellite passes will be used for orbital determination. The third such maneuver will take place in several days time. Both star-trackers have seen `first light' and are functioning well. The first perigee-raising maneuver had been successfully conducted on the 14th of February, JST, and the perigee was raised to about 360 km. ( VSOP Post-Launch Update Jan. 17, 1997)
Meanwhile Hale-Bopp is already a nice photographic target even for small equipment as picture by R. Sipe with a 50 mm lens on 1600 ASA film from Feb. 9th shows. With larger instruments the big fan of dust and long streak of plasma tail are as beautiful as ever - so have a look now, as the visibility still improves.
For a - growing, it seems - number of weirdos, esoteric nuts and UFO fanatics, however, Hale-Bopp is not a beauty in the sky. These people, who nowadays can express themselves with great ease on the Internet, consider it a scary business (not unlike their comrades in the Dark Ages) and see mysterious happenings around it all the time. So large has the number of Hale-Bopp bullsh*t pages already become that there is even a master list available where the worst of Hale-Bopp internet nonsense is mixed with real science links ... All the other Hale-Bopp fans might prefer attending the first great real Hale-Bopp conference instead.
Six people from 3 countries work onboard Mir after the replacement basic crew and the German guest cosmonaut R. Ewald arrived on Feb. 12th. Both Ewald's diary as well as U.S. guest G. Linenger's letters from Mir to his son are in the public domain.
The most convincing evidence yet for the increasingly popular view that a giant asteroid impact caused the mass extinction of life on Earth 65 million years has been found in cores from ocean drillings. They show how flourishing life appeared right when the traces from the impactor are found, and how new life arises thousands of years later. The details of the apocalyptic scenario are becoming clearer all the time. ( CNN Online Jan. 16, 1996)
The Third Meeting of European Planetary and Cometary Observers in Violau took place last weekend and was considered a major success by the some 40 participants from 7 countries how had followed the invitation. It turned out that a vast majority of Europe's leading planet and comet observers is already online, and so the 'meeting' continues in cyberspace before we meet again in 1999.
Finally a congratulation: Florida Today's Space Online news service - a major source of breaking spaceflight and also astronomy news stories for The Cosmic Mirror and Skyweek - has won the equivalent of the Oscar on the Web. Hardly anywhere else can one find news flashes, full articles, pictures, movies and sounds virtually 'live'.
Update #34 of Feb. 11, 1997, at 16:45 UTC
This is probably the best picture ever taken of Hale-Bopp so far, yesterday morning by Italian amateurs at the Col Druscie Observatory with a Takahashi 102 mm f/6, exp. 8', and Kodak Express Gold 400 II hyper. The photographers, Alessandro Dimai, Orsola and Carlo Ferrigno report that "the comet was of magnitude 1.4 an ion tail of ~5 degrees naked eye visible and a diffuse dust tail of ~2 deg. The Deep Sky Object near Hale Bopp is the planetary nebula M 27 in Vulpecula."
In binoculars the most stunning aspect of Hale-Bopp is its very bright false nucleus - and if you want to observe those details with a telescope, I've found out that those instruments which one would normally use for planet observations are suited best (e.g. long focal length refractors): The structures in Hale-Bopp's inner coma are so bright that they deserve high resolution and magnification. With large telescopes they look pretty weird and defy easy explanation - witness those referenced in the Feb. 7 Update. But even amateur data can, properly image-processed, yield similar results - if you can take high-resolution (preferably CCD) images, the real fun starts with the processing experiments!
Discovery performed a spectacular liftoff as well, on Feb. 11 at 8:55 UTC. The 2nd HST Servicing Mission is being followed around the world and especially cyberspace, with "home" pages everywhere: at NASA HQ, CNN and Florida Today, for example. So far everything is on track for the rendezvous and capture of HST Wednesday night. Meanwhile high-resolution imaging from the ground with interferometric techniques is maturing quickly, often surpassing Hubble (but never able to achieve its resolution, sensitivity and UV capability at the same time).
In contrast, the future of ESA's space science looks grim, with the severe budget cut ordered by the European 'science' ministers in 1995 now claiming its first victims. Several missions of the current long-term program Horizon 2000 will be delayed - and the much-hailed successor program Horizon 2000 Plus is all but dead. Its three bold 'cornerstone missions' (a Mercury orbiter, an optical interferometer in space and a gravity wave detector) are all postponed indefinitely, to way beyond 2010... (Nature Jan. 30, Science Jan. 31, 1997)
Are gamma ray bursts correlated with galaxies? Such a correlation is indicated by the 9 GRB's with the best-determined sky positions seen so far: Where they came from, there are more galaxies than elsewhere. But the burst positions - obtained by triangulating timings from spacecraft all over the solar system - aren't good enough to single out individual galaxies. And the actual mechanism of the bursts remains elusive... (AW&ST Feb. 3, 1997 p. 66)
An amazing way to travel through the solar system with hardly any propulsion has been discovered by computer simulations: libration point surfing. The many-body-problem is still good for surprises today - which is also evident from another chance discovery. There exists a stable orbit around the Earth (or Venus) in the shape of an ellipse. Big deal - but this time the Earth is not in a focus but the center of the ellipse! This orbit might be used for science spacecraft - or natural satellites do already exist there.(AW&ST Feb. 3, 1997)
News Capsules: Pioneer 10 is still obeying Earth! The old Jupiter probe launched 25 years ago responded to commands recently to point its HGA at Earth more precisely.
Life on Venus is not totally unthinkable, says David Grinspoon: Perhaps there are microorganisms with chemistry based on sulfur dwelling in the upper atmosphere of the otherwise hellish planet...
It is now possible to download very detailled star maps based on the Twin Astrographic Catalog, as well as finder charts for faint supernovae.
The Mars Pathfinder spacecraft has performed its 2nd trajectory correction on Feb. 3rd.
A U.S. newspaper published a photo taken by a modern reconnaissance satellite recently - and the spy agencies which usually keep even the existence of these satellites secret don't seem to care...
Update #33 of Feb. 5, 1997, at 20:45 UTC
To the naked eye Hale-Bopp looks like a fuzzy star, but in binoculars it is spectacular, with a strongly condensed coma and a broad tail. In a telescope one can even see the pattern formed by the dust shooting out of the nucleus (which one cannot see itself, of course) and forming the tail.
At the comet's home page there are now several new pictures every day (this is my favorite so far), and everyone seems to agree that it is a fine site visually as well. Check also here for ideas how to use Hale-Bopp in the classroom.
The variable star Mira is approaching its maximum brightness which it should reach around February 15th - but the famous star is already at magnitude 2.8, significantly brighter than the average maximum of 3.5. Perhaps the maximum comes early - go out and watch!
Precisely one sentence about space was found by my editor in Pres. Clinton's 1997 State of the Union Address last night - here it is: "We must continue to explore the heavens -- pressing on with the Mars probes and the international space station, both of which will have practical applications for our everyday living." Tomorrow Clinton's budget request for NASA in FY 1998 will be published, but it is expected to be less grim than anticipated. Since both the White House and Congress seem to be happy with it, the much-hailed "Space Summit" will probably slip to March or be cancelled. (Space News Jan. 27)
News Capsules: A fine Memorial Site for Clyde Tombaugh has opened, with articles on his achievements and links. A particularly big Kuiper-Belt Object with a diameter of 400 km seems to be 1996 TL66 - but this is still only 1/6 of the diameter of Pluto.
Did Cassini observe a comet crash on Jupiter in 1960 (see Update #30)? According to the Japanese findings he saw one dark spot, changing for 18 days. Intriguing but no proof...
Ever heard about Energetic Neutral Atom Imaging? A new way to image the outermost atmosphere. A related item: the International Aurora Study with coordinated space-based, air- and groundbased investigations of the Northern Lights, involving the FAST satellite.
Data from the DMSP satellites are now available, including the famous view of the U.S. at night.
The discovery of the 24th Aten asteroid by the NEAT project has once more been misrepresented in the general media: After bizarre stories about a "strange asteroid racing towards earth" public observatories received lots of worried phone calls...
Update #32 of Jan. 28, 1997, at 19:45 UTC
This supports an earlier speculation about the accident, namely that some outside factor like hot gases from a leaking booster had compromised the structural integrity of the first stage of the Delta. The collapse of the rocket casing then triggered the automatic self-destruction mechanism - this is about the only fact about the accident that is known for sure.
What could have caused the leak on the booster that somewhat resembled the leaking booster of space shuttle Challenger on its last launch? While the Challenger leak took place at a joint between booster segments, the Delta boosters are made in one piece, and at the moment there is no convincing scenario in which their casing could be cracked. Thus it is totally unclear whether the accident points to a deeply rooted problem or just to a bizarre manufacturing glitch. (AW&ST Jan. 27, 1997, p. 30-33)
Kroto was particularly interested in carbon-rich giant stars. He had discovered and investigated spectrum lines in their atmospheres and found that they could be ascribed to a kind of long-chained molecule of only carbon and nitrogen, termed cyanopolyynes. The same sort of molecules is also found in interstellar gas clouds. Kroto's idea was that these carbon compounds had been formed in stellar atmospheres, not in clouds. He thus wished to study the formation of these long-chain molecules more closely - and then discovered the fullerenes.
Now, 12 years later, research seem to have come full circle with stronger than ever evidence for C60+ in interstellar space: It seems to be responsible for two of the 150 known (and still largely unidentified) Diffuse Interstellar Bands in stellar spectra at 958 and 963 nm. Before fullerene had been found in a few places on Earth, in meteorite craters and in a tiny crater on the LDEF satellite. But now the fullerenes have re-entered astronomy: Various model calculations have already predicted quite some abundance in some environments. (Foing & Ehrenfreund, Astronomy & Astrophysics 317, L59-62 [1997])
In other Space Station news, there is concern that some of the modules, especially the Russian ones, could be too prone for damage by space debris. And the European Space Agency is now calling for proposals from users who want to either do life science on the station when it is still under construction in 1999 to 2000 - or who want to mount equipment onto the truss structure starting 2001. The latter option should be of interest for astronomers and space scientists! (AW&ST Jan. 20, 1997, p. 20-21 et al.)
A star 17 billions years of age? Nucleocosmochronology which experts call particularly reliable says that the halo star CS22892-052 has an age of (17 +/- 4) Gyr. This is not only a new record for a directly determined stellar age but does also mean big trouble for the so-called standard cosmology with a Big Bang but without a Cosmological Constant. Recent evidence puts the Hubble constant in the 60 ... 70 km/s/Mpc range (see Update # 29) which translates to an age of the Cosmos of only 10 to 15 Gyr. A cosmological constant > 0 would resolve the discrepancy. (Nature Jan. 16, 1997, p. 205-6)
Action in the Lagoon Nebula: Messier 8, a site of current star formation, was much in the news last week: Hubble seems to have discovered cloud features resembling tornadoes - perhaps caused by similar temperature gradients and shear forces - and radio astronomers have found strong CO emission from a 'hot' site of star formation that somehow had been overlooked for decades - even the Times took notice.
Bigger is better for telescopes: A complicated analysis by a British astronomer has found that the bigger you telescope is (and the more it has cost), the more often your scientific paper gets cited by other astronomers. The cost efficiency index is highest for the biggest scopes (2.5 meters and up) and gets lower the smaller the instrument is: less than 60 cm yields only 10th as much citation for the money. (Leverington, Nature Jan. 16, 1997, p. 196)
Hale-Bopp is now at 2.4 mag and has a tail of about 1 degree length. Here is the latest ESO Update and orbital information, and here are countless - but tested - Hale-Bopp links. An interesting note: Until Jan. 17 there were already 17 supernova discoveries this year, most of them from dedicated searches for distant Ia-SNe for cosmological purposes. (IAUC # 6540 Jan. 17, 1997)
A flood of new Galileo images has been published in recent days, especially the first high-resolution views of Europa and a series of topographical images of Io - which isn't as flat as it often looks. And for something completely different, check out how the U.S. broadcaster NBC is dealing with asteroids ...
Two sad anniversaries for NASA have been yesterday and are today: 30 years ago, on Jan. 27, 1967, the Apollo 1 fire killed three astronauts, and 11 years ago, on Jan. 28, 1986, the Challenger accident killed another seven.
Update #31 of Jan. 23, 1997, at 18:30 UTC
The sudden explosion at 480 meters altitude was a truly traumatic event for a group of spectactors a mere mile from the launch site, as several reports and images testify. There was also concern in nearby communities about possible health hazards (which fortuantely were unfounded), several cars parked in the proximity of the launch site were destroyed and brush fires started. Also, the area is now full of unburned solid fuel.
Even more important are the long term consequences, however: The Delta is grounded until the inquiry is finished - and that can take 3 to 4 months. It is well possible that the usually very reliable Delta (this was only the 14th failure) won't fly again until late this year. Fortunately the two NASA Mars spacecraft are safely on their way... (Florida Today Jan. 22, 1997)
Now UFOlogists claim that Hale-Bopp is either followed by a giant spaceship inhabited by dolphins who want to rescue Earth, or that Hale-Bopp is a spaceship itself, but accompanied by two hostile satellites from Orion... There has even been a case where a real Hale-Bopp image with a faked companion was widely distributed, e.g. by the (in)famous U.S. radio talk show host Art Bell or UFO abduction propagandist Whitley Strieber, who both have (kind of) accepted the evidence for the fake, though.
Meanwhile the comet itself is behaving nicely: According to the current listing it has reached 2.5 mag and is now very well visible to the naked eye in the morning sky towards the East. Whether it deserves the title Monster Comet remains to be seen, though...
Compiled and written by Daniel Fischer (send me a mail to [email protected]!), Skyweek
