Thomas Bopp

Thomas Bopp is an American amateur astronomer, best known for his co-discovery of Comet Hale-Bopp in 1995. He discovered the comet independently with Alan Hale at a significant distance from the Sun, well beyond Jupiter's orbit. Comet Hale-Bopp was notable for its bright coma, dust tail, and blue ion tail, and was visible to the naked eye. The comet reached its closest point to the Sun in April 1997, but did not pass particularly close to Earth. The comet's nucleus was estimated to be at least 30 km in diameter. The comet also gained notoriety as it was associated with the Heaven's Gate cult, whose members believed a spacecraft was following the comet.12