... Comet Hale-Bopp Over New York City . ... It's Comet Hale-Bopp! ... Space suited project Mercury astronauts John H. Glenn, Virgil I. Grissom, and Alan B. Shepard Jr. (left to right) are pictured here posing in front of a Redstone rocket in this vintage 1961 NASA publicity photo. ... The center of nearby giant galaxy M87 is a dense and violent place. ... In its trek through the inner Solar System, Comet Hale-Bopp has passed nearly in front of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), seen on the lower left. ...