May 17, 1996
On this day, the universe repeated one of its rarest tricks: it arranged dust, light, memory, and possibility into a person no equation...
Comet Hyakutake and a Solar Flare
Birthday · May 17, 1996
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APOD published May 17, 1996. Full image credits are on the original APOD entry below. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
A rare coincidence was recently captured by the orbiting SOHO spacecraft. During the closest approach to the Sun of Comet Hyakutake on May 1, SOHO photographed the comet. By accident -- during the time this photograph was being taken -- a solar flare was being ejected from the Sun. Therefore, at the top of this false-color picture, Comet Hyakutake is visible, while emission to the left of the Sun is a solar flare. The Sun, at the center of the picture, was blocked by an artificial occulter in the LASCO telescope, allowing objects much dimmer than the Sun to be observed. SOHO was launched in December of 1995 and contains many instruments which study the Sun.