This comet burst upon the scene in 1996, as we were all awaiting the arrival of Comet Hale-Bopp. It passed within 0.1 AU of the Earth. It also had an extremely long tail, and the combination of tail length and closeness resulted in spectacular object that under good conditions extended over half the sky or more. Hyakutake is a long-period comet, and won't return to the inner Solar System for another 70,000 years.

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