An astonishing kite that thrilled early morning stargazers earlier this month is now visible in the night sky, and it’s a sight you won’t want to miss. After all, this comet will not return in 6,800 years, says NASA.
Comet NEOWISE can now be seen just after sunset for observers in the northern hemisphere, according to NASA. (Sorry, sky watchers from the southern hemisphere, not visible there.) The comet got closer to the sun on July 3, but was only visible before sunrise so far.
“If you’re in the northern hemisphere, you can see it,” said Joe Masiero, deputy principal investigator for NEOWISE, the NASA space telescope that discovered the comet, in an Internet broadcast from NASA Science Live on Wednesday (July 15) . “As the days go by, it will increase in the night sky, so you will want to look northwest just below the Big Dipper.” (The Big Dipper is a ladle-shaped star pattern that is part of the Ursa Major constellation, the Big Bear.)
Related: How to see the NEOWISE comet in the night sky this month
Plus: Incredible photos of Comet NEOWISE from Earth and space
See kite NEOWISE?
(Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins APL / Naval Research Lab / Parker Solar Probe / Brendan Gallagher)
If you see Comet NEOWISE, let us know! Send images and comments to [email protected] to share your views.
There are a few more kite-watching tips to keep in mind, according to Masiero.
First, you’ll want to try to get away from the city lights and settle in a place with a clear and unobstructed view of the northwest horizon.
Then find out what time your local sunset is. (A tool like Farmer’s Almanac or TimeandDate.com may help.) You will need to wait up to 45 minutes after sunset before hunting the kite.
“What you want to do is go out just as the first stars start to appear. You won’t be able to see it before that,” Masiero said. “It’s probably as bright as some of the Big Dipper stars.”
With the naked eye, Comet NEOWISE will look like a fuzzy star with a bit of a tail, according to a NASA guide. But binoculars or a small telescope offer a much better view.
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Officially known as C / 2020 F3, Comet NEOWISE was first discovered in March by the infrared-optimized NEOWISE spacecraft (the name is short for Near-Earth Wide-Field Infrared Space Explorer). Since then, the comet has been seen by various telescopes and space observatories, astronauts on the International Space Station, and, of course, stargazers on Earth.
Comet light is sunlight reflecting off the dazzling tail of gas and dust moving away from NEOWISE as it gets further and further away from the sun. In some photos you can see a second tail made of ionized particles ejected from the comet’s head (called a “coma”) by the solar wind.
“This comet is approximately 3 miles [5 kilometers] and most comets have about half the water and half the dust, “said Emily Kramer, a researcher with the NEOWISE scientific team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who used that statistic to calculate how much water is in Comet NEOWISE.
“It is about 13 million Olympic water pools,” he added. “So there is a lot of water.”
Related: The 9 brightest comets ever seen
Comet NEOWISE is currently about 70 million miles (111 million km) from Earth, or about three-quarters of the distance from Earth and the sun, and in an extremely elliptical orbit that takes it far from the sun, he said. Masiero. Earth is about 93 million miles (150 million km) from the sun on average.
The comet is moving at about 40 miles per second, or about 144,000 mph (231,000 km / h), but it does not pose a threat to Earth, Masiero said.
“There is no risk to the planet from this,” he added. “It is very far from us and does not come close to us, so there is no threat.”
There may not be an impact threat from Comet NEOWISE, but there is a “surprise” factor for sky watchers who see it, Kramer said.
“The fact that we can see it is really what makes it unique. It is rare enough for a comet to be bright enough to be seen with the naked eye or even just with binoculars,” he added. “The last time we had such a brilliant comet was the Hale-Bopp comet in 1995 and 1996, so it has been a long time.”
Editor’s Note: Do you take an amazing photo or video of Comet NEOWISE in the night sky? Let us know! To share images and videos for a possible story or gallery, send images and comments to [email protected].
Email Tariq Malik at [email protected] or follow him at @tariqjmalik. Follow us on @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Instagram.
