Discovered by Yuji Hyakutake in 1996, Comet Hyakutake approached Earth just a few months later. In fact, in March of 1996, the comet was only 0.1 astronomical units, or about 9 million miles, from Earth. That's 36 times the distance from us to the moon.

Hyakutake had a 360-million-mile-long tail--the longest of any comet. It was so bright, it was visible even in daylight, and it accompanied the appearance of the highly anticipated comet Hale-Bopp.