The comet will make its closest approach to the Earth on March 23, 1997. The comet will come up from the south, go over the top of the Sun and then plunge down again. In March and April 1997, it will only be easily visible from the Northern Hemisphere. There have been reports that this comet is very large. Actually, the heart of the comet, the nucleus, is obscured by the dust and gas that forms the head of the comet.
Nobody knows how large the nucleus is.
The brightness of the comet is not always directly related to the size of the nucleus. This is because typically, only a fraction of the surface of a comet's nucleus is active. It is possible that this comet has a small nucleus with most of its surface emitting dust and gas. It is also possible that this comet has a large nucleus with only a small active region. Unfortunately, no one really knows.