Name Yuji Hyakutake Role Astronomer | Discovered Comet Hyakutake | |
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Died April 10, 2002, Kagoshima, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan | ||
Yuji Hyakutake (百武 裕司, Hyakutake Yūji, July 7, 1950, Shimabara, Nagasaki – April 10, 2002, Kagoshima) was a Japanese amateur astronomer who discovered Comet C/1996 B2, also known as Comet Hyakutake on January 31, 1996 while using 25×150 binoculars.
In 1994, he moved to Kagoshima, Japan in order to find comets. His first discovery was Comet C/1995 Y1, on December 26, 1995.
Hyakutake discovered C/1996 B2 while looking for C/1995 Y1, a comet he had discovered a few weeks before.
The media has stated that Hyakutake became interested in astronomy after seeing Comet Ikeya-Seki in 1965.
He died in Kokubu, Kagoshima, in 2002 at age 51 of an aneurysm which had led to internal bleeding.
Asteroid 7291 Hyakutake is named after him.
References
Yuji Hyakutake Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA