Has a disconnection event been seen in comet Hale Bopp? We think so! Investigation is ongoing, and further results will be posted as they are discovered.

This image was taken by Steve Larson of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (University of Arizona) on May 7.1. This wide field image is about 9 degrees by 12 degrees. The arrow points to the disconnected tail and is 70 million kilometers from the comet head. That's about half an Astronomical Unit!

The image was taken with a CO+ filter, so only the ionized plasma is visible. The dust which often obscures the plasma tail in this comet is not very bright at this wavelength.