May 15 1996
From The Space Library
NASA and the ESA made available images taken of Comet Hyakutake as it approached the Sun. The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory had captured the pictures during the appearance of the comet in late April 1996. The Naval Research Laboratory had built a special instrument the Large Angle Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO)--to record the images. Operating aboard SOHO, LASCO suppressed the glare of the Sun, exposing the comet and its tails. In addition, the instrument produced the equivalent of a time-lapse movie of Hyakutake, thereby documenting the comet's tails as they changed direction in reaction to the Sun's forces. LASCO also allowed scientists to observe coronal mass ejections the expulsion of hot gases. Researchers used the data to learn more about how comets interact with the Sun and about the behavior of comet tails.
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