British Columbians are sharing images of a recently discovered comet that will be visible over B.C. for the next couple of weeks, before disappearing again for thousands of years.
The Neowise comet, discovered in March by NASA’s Neowise infrared space telescope, reached its closest point to the sun on July 3, which caused the “frozen ice ball” to heat up and burn gas and dust off its surface.
explains that, "This very close passage by the Sun is cooking the comet's outermost layers, causing gas and dust to erupt off the icy surface and creating a large tail of debris. And yet the comet has managed to survive this intense roasting."
What's more, the astronauts aboard the International Space Station from their vantage point high above Earth's atmosphere.
"From its infrared signature, we can tell that it is about 5 kilometers [3 miles] across, and by combining the infrared data with visible-light images, we can tell that the comet's nucleus is covered with sooty, dark particles left over from its formation near the birth of our solar system 4.6 billion years ago," said Joseph Masiero, NEOWISE deputy principal investigator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
The comet will be visible for a few weeks, and it can be seen with the naked eye. However, binoculars will make for better visuals.
Have a look at some of the best photos from the Lower Mainland over the past few days.
Comet NEOWISE photographed over Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»this morning.
— Claude Schneider (@claudeschneider)
The best time to see it is around 3am - that will be getting earlier each night, although the comet will be getting fainter as it travels out into the solar system.
Even better photos of Comet NEOWISE photographed over Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»on Sunday night.
— Claude Schneider (@claudeschneider)
The clearer skies meant the comet's tail was visible to the naked eye, and photos reveal the comet's second, fainter ion tail.
Comet C/2020 F3 Neowise over Vancouver! We took this image around 11pm last night, but I first spotted it at 10:15pm. Image credit: Jordash Kiffiak and Joanna Woo
— Joanna Woo (@JoannaAstro)
Woohoo! Managed to find and photograph comet from Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»
— Andy Gibb (@_andy_gibb_)
Four shots of over tonight. Mostly 10 s exposures around ISO 1000 at f4.5. Yes, naked-eye visible in city lights. The time exposures bring out detail the eye doesn't see.
— Peter Vogel (@PeterVogel)
Comet Neowise setting over Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»
— Tyler Black, MD (@tylerblack32)
from Spanish Banks in Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»B.C. after sunset on July 13, 2020. Easy through binoculars but faint visually. Shots taken just before 11 pm PDT.
— Michel Gélinas (@GarconGlacon)
Comet watching over West Vancouver.
— Mark Atomos Pilon (@Atomos)
Watch a short video from the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre about how to find the comet.
With files from The Associated Press and Roxanne Egan-Elliott.
