Comet
Passed unusually close to Earth in 1996, appearing as one of the brightest comets in decades with an exceptionally long visible tail.
| Type | Comet |
|---|---|
| Distance from the Sun | 2120.00 AU |
| Diameter | 4 km |
| Mass | 8.80 × 10¹² kg |
| Temperature | -266°C |
| Orbital period | 35,652,800 days |
| Rotation period | 6.27 hours |
| Apparent magnitude | 0 |
| Redshift | 0 |
| Discovered | 1996 |
Comets are icy bodies that vaporise as they near the Sun, and it's that boiling-off gas and dust, not the comet itself, that forms the tail.
At 4 km across, Comet Hyakutake is less than a thousandth of the diameter of Earth.
Its mass is less than a thousandth of the mass of Earth.
It keeps an average distance of 2120 AU from the Sun, so sunlight takes 293.8 hours to reach it.
A single orbit takes 97,612 years.
An average temperature of 7 K works out at -266 degrees Celsius, colder than the 15 degrees Earth averages.
It has been on record since 1996.
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