Great Comets
The rare, brilliant comets that become naked-eye spectacles — Hale–Bopp, NEOWISE, McNaught, and more.
- Hale–BoppC/1995
The 'Great Comet of 1997', a long-period comet with an exceptionally large, active nucleus that remained visible to the naked eye for a record 18 months.
TypeLong-period cometDiscovered1995Great cometYes - HyakutakeC/1996
The 'Great Comet of 1996', which passed very close to Earth and displayed one of the longest comet tails ever recorded.
TypeLong-period cometDiscovered1996Great cometYes - Ikeya–SekiC/1965
One of the brightest comets of the past thousand years — a Kreutz sungrazer that became visible in daylight near the Sun in October 1965.
TypeKreutz sungrazerDiscovered1965Great cometYes - McNaughtC/2006
The 'Great Comet of 2007', the brightest comet in decades, whose vast fanned dust tail was a spectacular sight from the Southern Hemisphere.
TypeLong-period cometDiscovered2006Great cometYes - NEOWISEC/2020
The brightest comet visible from the Northern Hemisphere since Hale–Bopp, a naked-eye spectacle in July 2020 discovered by the NEOWISE space telescope.
TypeLong-period cometDiscovered2020Great cometYes