"Hey, look! It's right out there," exclaimed Skylab Astronaut Edward Gibson last week. "I tell you, it's one of the most beautiful creations I've ever seen. It's so graceful." Added Skylab Commander Gerald Carr: "It's yellow and orange, just like a flame."
After a journey of billions of miles across the outer reaches of the solar system, the comet called Kohoutek last week finally made its solar rendezvous. And for the first time in astronomical history, a comet's close sweep round the sunwhen it is subject to maximum heat and gravitational forcewas observed from above the earth's...