Radar echoes from Comet Hyakutake were detected today with the JPL/NASA 70-meter antenna at Goldstone, California.
In each of several dozen transmit-receive cycles, a 480-kilowatt, 3.5-centimeter-wavelength signal was transmitted toward the comet, and echoes were received 107 seconds later.
The echoes show the presence of a nucleus as well as a coma of particles that are not much smaller than a centimeter, and whose radial velocities with respect to the nucleus reach at least 10 meters per second.
Additional observations are scheduled for the next few days.
We obtained some additional echoes from the comet despite equipment problems
that wiped out most of the track. Signatures of the nucleus and coma are
similar to those from March 24.
Comet 1996 B2 Hyakutake Home Page
