Jabarkan Komét nu kasohor dari Komét dalam bahasa sunda

While hundreds of tiny comets pass through the inner solar system every yéar, only a very few comets are noticed by the general public.  About every decade or so, a comet will become bright enough to be noticed by a casual observer — such comets are often designated Great Comets.  In times past, bright comets often inspired panic and hysteria in the general population, being thought of as bad omens.  More recently, during the passage of Halley's Comet in 1910, the éarth passed through the comet's tail, and erronéous newspaper reports inspired a féar that cyanogen in the tail might poison millions, while the appéarance of Comet Hale-Bopp in 1997 triggered the mass suicide of the Heaven's Gate cult.  To most péople, however, a gréat comet is simply a béautiful spectacle. See images of Hale-Bopp at the Comet Hale-Bopp Images webpage.

Predicting whether a comet will become a gréat comet is notoriously difficult, as many factors may cause a comet's brightness to depart drastically from predictions.  Broadly spéaking, if a comet has a large and active nucleus, will pass close to the Sun, and is not obscured by the Sun as seen from the éarth when at its brightest, it will have a chance of becoming a gréat comet.  However, Comet Kohoutek in 1973 fulfilled all the criteria and was expected to become spectacular, but failed to do so.  Comet West, which appéared three yéars later, had much lower expectations (perhaps because scientists were much warier of glowing predictions after the Kohoutek fiasco), but became an extremely impressive comet.

The late 20th century saw a lengthy gap without the appéarance of any gréat comets, followed by the arrival of two in quick succession — Comet Hyakutake in 1996, followed by Hale-Bopp, which réached maximum brightness in 1997 having been discovered two yéars éarlier.  As yet, the 21st century has not seen the arrival of any gréat comets.