Comet Hale–Bopp

Comet Hale–Bopp (formally designated C/1995 O1) was perhaps the most widely observed comet of the 20th century and one of the brightest seen for many decades. It was visible to the naked eye for a record 18 months, twice as long as the previous record holder, the Great Comet of 1811.

Hale–Bopp was discovered on July 23, 1995, at a great distance from the Sun, raising expectations that the comet would brighten considerably by the time it passed close to Earth. Although predicting the brightness of comets with any degree of accuracy is very difficult, Hale–Bopp met or exceeded most predictions when it passed perihelion on April 1, 1997. The comet was dubbed the Great Comet of 1997.

Discovery

The comet was discovered independently on July 23, 1995 by two observers, Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp, both in the United States.

Hale had spent many hundreds of hours searching for comets without success, and was tracking known comets from his driveway in New Mexico when he chanced upon Hale–Bopp just after midnight. The comet had an apparent magnitude of 10.5 and lay near the globular cluster M70 in the constellation of Sagittarius. Hale first established that there was no other deep-sky object near M70, and then consulted a directory of known comets, finding that none were known to be in this area of the sky. Once he had established that the object was moving relative to the background stars, he emailed the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams, the clearing house for astronomical discoveries.

FO

Fo or FO may refer to:

Locations

Science and technology

Military and aviation

People

Apúlia e Fão

Apúlia e Fão is a civil parish in the municipality of Esposende, Portugal. It was formed in 2013 by the merger of the former parishes Apúlia and Fão. The population in 2011 was 7,301, in an area of 16.29 km².

References

Dioxygen difluoride

Dioxygen difluoride is a compound of fluorine and oxygen with the molecular formula O
2F
2. It exists as an orange solid that melts into a red liquid at −163 °C (110 K). It is an extremely strong oxidant and decomposes into oxygen and fluorine even at −160 °C (113 K) at a rate of 4% per day: its lifetime at room temperature is thus extremely short. Dioxygen difluoride reacts with nearly every chemical it encounters – even ordinary ice – leading to its onomatopoeic nickname "FOOF" (a play on its chemical structure).

The material has no practical applications, but has been of theoretical interest. One laboratory's use of it was the synthesis of plutonium hexafluoride at unprecedentedly low temperatures, which was significant because previous methods for its preparation needed temperatures so high that the plutonium hexafluoride created would rapidly decompose.

Preparation

Dioxygen difluoride can be obtained by subjecting a 1:1 mixture of gaseous fluorine and oxygen at low pressure (7–17 mmHg is optimal) to an electric discharge of 25–30 mA at 2.1–2.4 kV. A similar method was used for the first synthesis by Otto Ruff in 1933. Another synthesis involves mixing O
2 and F
2 in a stainless steel vessel cooled to −196 °C (77.1 K), followed by exposing the elements to 6987480652946100000♠3 MeV bremsstrahlung for several hours. A third method requires heating a mix of fluorine and oxygen to 700 °C (1,292 °F), and then rapidly cooling it using liquid oxygen. All of these methods involve synthesis according to the equation: