Who Put the Bopp in Hale-Bopp?
The Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams is in business to report on observational, as opposed to theoretical, discoveries. Its responsibilities overlap with the Minor Planet Center, as do its personnel and physical space — with both centers, for the most part, crammed into a few modest-sized offices in Building A of the Center for Astrophysics. The prime emphasis at CBAT is on comets and supernova (exploding stars), which is in itself an exploding industry. The supernova discovered a few months ago, for example, “SN1996bx,” was the 76th supernova discovered in 1996, which constitutes a single-year record. Yet Brian Marsden stresses that “the act of discovery, itself, doesn’t mean much if you don’t follow up on it. The whole point of publishing these things in our telegrams is that someone might follow up on it.” The Bureau sends out its telegrams (or Circulars), with announcements of new discoveries, every day or two to more than 400 print subscribers and 500 e-mail subscribers
