The world's nonsense keeping you awake in middle of the night? Good news. Go outside and see this tw
The world's nonsense keeping you awake in middle of the night? Good news. Go outside and see this two-tail comet
At 65 million miles away, that's what we call social distancing
Sat 11 Jul 2020 // 08:26 UTC17
Katyanna Quach
A two-pronged comet with billowing tails of gas and dust will streak across the sky this month.
If you're in the northern hemisphere, and gazing up at the right moment – around 4am local time, July 10 to 15, looking northeast; and potentially an hour after sunset, July 14 to 23, looking northwest – you should catch a glimpse of the comet, C/2020 F3 NEOWISE. And local time really does mean the time wherever you are.
The glowing lump of ice and rock was discovered by NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) probe on March 27 – hence the name. Astronauts onboard the International Space Station also clocked the comet.
Read the directions ... When to expect the comet when looking northeast. Click to enlarge. Source: Sky & Telescope. Used with permission
Solar radiation vaporizes the ice in the comet's nucleus. Gas and dust are freed as a result, and it all forms a cloud, or coma, around the comet’s body as well its two tails. One of the tails contains ionized gas, and the other, brighter, one is made up of dust. The comet made its closest approach to the Sun on July 3. Now, it’s making its way towards Earth and will eventually cross our planet’s orbit and return to the outer edges of our Solar System by August.
More:
https://www.theregister.com/2020/07/11/neowise_comet_spotting/
= new reply since forum marked as read
