Depending on the weather, early Tuesday morning might be the best viewing opportunity.
The green comet hasn’t been seen since woolly mammoths and Neanderthals walked the Earth as it passes by us this winter. You may not see it.
Depending on the weather, early Tuesday morning might be the best viewing opportunity.
Michael Kelley, a research scientist at the University of Maryland’s Astronomy Department, told WTOP that the morning hours are when the comet appears highest in the sky. It will appear quite close to the northern star. But if it’s nocturnal, later in the week, the evenings will look more comfortable.
Kelley said pack your binoculars, or a telescope if you have one, and head out into the countryside where there is minimal light pollution. Perhaps it will be best to see the comet, hanging over the cloud cover.
“It’s really fun to see a comet if you have the chance. Hopefully, we’ll have clear skies and everyone can give it a try,” Kelley said.
Comet Green has not been near Earth for about 50,000 years. Its orbit takes it all the way to the Oort cloud, which is the outermost part of our solar system.
“It’s interesting to think about how old these objects are, how old the Earth is, how old all these parts of our solar system are,” Kelley said. “We’re just a small part of that.”
Now, it travels about 90,000 miles, about a third of the distance from the Earth to the Sun. The moon is almost a hundred times closer. But even so, Kelley told WTOP that many Oort cloud comets would not block this comet, and this particular comet may never pass close to Earth again.
“Whenever these Oort cloud comets come to the inner solar system, the planets get a chance to grab them or pull them in by gravity. And this, especially, to prevent it from coming back again, there’s a small chance that it can be ejected from the solar system,” says Kelley.
Comets are pale in color and cannot be seen with the naked eye or with binoculars, amateur astronomers can capture brilliant images of the emerald glow.
Kelley likened the comet to “a great space snowball,” made of dust and ice. The ice becomes gas, forming a cloud of gases around the comet called a coma.
“This beautiful green color comes from the gas around the comet,” Kelley said.
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