Comet Hyakutake Has The Longest Tail Ever Recorded

Question: Which comet has the longest tail ever recorded?

Answer: Comet Hyakutake holds the record of having the longest tail, at a length of 560 million kilometers. This record almost doubles its predecessor the Great Comet of 1843 which had a tail 300 million kilometers long. Comet Hyakutake was discovered in 1996. When it passed Earth it was so close that you could see it move among the background stars in a single night. As it reached its closest approach to Earth, the tail began to extend far across the sky.

It will be a long, long time before Hyakutake makes the journey near Earth again; one NASA prediction from 1996 said it would be 14,000 years before the comet arrives again, but accounts vary due to the uncertainty of predicting the comet’s trajectory.

MessageToEagle.com

Source:

Space.com