Alan Hale, Co-Discoverer of Hale-Bopp, Dies After Comet’s 18-Month Naked-Eye Run

Q: Alan Hale is remembered, but what was the fate of Thomas Bopp, the comet's other discoverer?

Thomas Bopp, the other co-discoverer of Comet Hale-Bopp, also has died. According to the additional material, Bopp passed away before Alan Hale and was remembered by the WCHS Class of 1965 as “a close friend and a great musician.” The provided reporting does not give the date, place, or cause of his death, but it makes clear that he is no longer living. Bopp was an American amateur astronomer who independently spotted the comet on July 23, 1995, while observing near Stanfield, Arizona, at the same time Hale was viewing from New Mexico. Their shared discovery led to the comet being named Hale-Bopp, one of the most famous and widely observed comets of the 20th century. So, in direct answer to the question: Thomas Bopp predeceased Hale and is remembered not only for the comet discovery but also personally by those who knew him as a friend and musician.

Q: What dark chapter of American history is forever linked to Comet Hale-Bopp's spectacular 1997 appearance?

It is forever linked to the 1997 Heaven’s Gate mass suicide. As Comet Hale-Bopp blazed across the sky in March 1997, 39 members of the Heaven’s Gate cult were found dead in Rancho Santa Fe, California. Led by Marshall Applewhite, they believed a spacecraft was traveling behind the comet and that by taking their own lives they would leave their bodies and join it. The deaths, discovered on March 26, 1997, became one of the most notorious cult tragedies in modern American history. Because the suicides happened at the height of Hale-Bopp’s extraordinary visibility, the comet’s celebrated appearance remains inseparable from that grim episode, even as it is also remembered as one of the most spectacular astronomical events of the 20th century.

3 articles · Updated · leonarddavid.com · Jun 6

Alan Hale, the astronomer who co-discovered the Hale-Bopp comet, died at his home, according to a statement from his wife, Vickie Stone Moseley Hale.
Hale-Bopp became one of the 20th century’s most widely observed comets after reaching perihelion on April 1, 1997, and about magnitude -1.8.
Its unusually large nucleus kept it visible to the naked eye for a record 18 months, turning the object Hale helped identify into a global skywatching event.
Hale was remembered by colleagues and friends as an astronomer whose discovery drew millions to look up and reflect on a rare visitor from deep space.