Astronomy Picture of the Day ·

Near Comet Hyakutake's Nucleus

The Astronomy Picture of the Day for March 21, 1996 is “Near Comet Hyakutake's Nucleus,” an image. It is credited to Credit: Olivier Hainaut (IoA, Hawaii) and Richard West (ESO), 3.5-m New Technology Telescope, European Southern Observatory. The original explanation runs about 124 words.

Near Comet Hyakutake's Nucleus
Credit: Olivier Hainaut (IoA, Hawaii) and Richard West (ESO), 3.5-m New Technology Telescope, European Southern Observatory Shown from science.nasa.gov. Not hosted by OpenOrbit.

From the explanation

“This March 19th false-color picture of Comet Hyakutake from one of the most sophisticated ground based telescopes captures the area surrounding the comet’s nucleus . A comet’s nucleus – not directly visible here – is a solid dirty iceball probably no more than 10 kilometers across.”

— APOD editors, March 21, 1996

Read the full explanation on science.nasa.gov

At a glance

Date
March 21, 1996
Type
Image
Credit
Credit: Olivier Hainaut (IoA, Hawaii) and Richard West (ESO), 3.5-m New Technology Telescope, European Southern Observatory
Copyright
No copyright notice on the entry. Check the credited institution’s own usage rules before reusing it.
Explanation length
About 124 words

All of March 1996 → · 1996 by month → · Full archive since 1995 →

Topics in this entry

Comets

Topics are matched from words in the title and explanation.

On this day: March 21 in other years

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Source

Copy taken Oct 28, 2026, 2:39 AM EDT. The image and explanation belong to their creators. OpenOrbit is not affiliated with or endorsed by NASA.