Comet Hale-Bopp and the Heaven's Gate Cult

Comet Hale-Bopp and the Heaven's Gate Cult

This article relates to Bright Objects

A central event in Ruby Todd's debut novel, Bright Objects, is the sighting of a comet in the atmosphere. Comet St. John appears in January of 1997 over Sylvia's small town in Australia, causing its residents, along with the rest of the world, to stargaze and ponder the mysteries of the universe.

While Comet St. John is a fictional comet, Todd has stated that the events in Bright Objects are based on the real-life Comet Hale-Bopp, which passed over Earth for an eighteen-month period in 1996 and 1997, as well as its strange connection to the Heaven's Gate cult.

Also known as the Great Comet of 1997, Comet Hale-Bopp or C/1995 O1 was discovered on July 23, 1995 by amateur astronomers Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp, who spotted it independently of each other in the neighboring states of New Mexico and Arizona. It was observed at a distance of 7.15 AU, or approximately 665 million miles. The comet is notable for its size and brightness. Its nucleus measures about 25 miles across, making it much larger than the arguably more famous Halley's Comet, less than 10 miles across, and Comet Hyakutake, a smaller comet that also passed close to Earth in 1996, only about a mile wide. On the astronomical magnitude scale, which measures how bright a celestial object is, Comet Hale-Bopp was classified at a peak magnitude of -1. This is less bright than the full moon at magnitude -13 and brighter than the North Star at magnitude 2 (the higher the number, the less bright the object).

Because of these characteristics, Comet Hale-Bopp is one of the most viewed comets in history and was the subject of much scientific study during its passing of Earth, as well as excitement among amateur stargazers. However, it is also marked by a grim event. When Hale-Bopp was closest to Earth in late March of 1997, a group of 39 men and women were found dead in a mansion in San Diego, California due to mass suicide. It was later discovered that they were members of the Heaven's Gate cult, and believed that the comet preceded a spaceship that would take them to heaven if they left their physical bodies on Earth.

Throughout history, comets have been known as objects of fascination, wonder, and fear. While marked by tragedy, Comet Hale-Bopp continues to orbit the sun, making a full rotation every 2,534 years. According to NASA, it is not expected to pass through our atmosphere again.

Comet Hale-Bopp from Powell Butte, Oregon, April 1997
By Tequask (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Filed under People, Eras & Events

This article relates to Bright Objects. It first ran in the September 4, 2024 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.