Comet "Neowiz" is visible in the evening sky. She's not coming back over 6800 years

Observations of the sky from the aircraft have their advantages — do not interfere with tropospheric clouds. While on the train the TRANS-Pacific flight, you can see the yellow-orange pattern of the earth's sunset, noctilucent clouds and tailed guest.

Bruce Hellevig, 8 Jul 2020 © Spaceweather.com

"At first I thought it was the trail from the other aircraft," said Bruce Hellevig, the pilot of the Boeing 777, flying from Narita (Japan) to Dallas (USA). But then, I realized that it was a comet "Neowiz". The photo was taken on 8 July.

Now the comet "Neowiz" is visible in the evening sky. You can see it in 45 minutes after sunset, directly under the Big Dipper. (In the southern hemisphere, the comet is not visible).

A comet visible to the naked eye as a fuzzy star with a small tail. Binoculars or a small telescope will greatly improve surveillance.

The light from the comet is the sun's light reflecting off of the tail of gas and dust. On some pictures you can see the second tail, consisting of ionized particles.

The coma is about 8 km in diameter and is half full of water and dust. Volume is about 13 million Olympic swimming pools of water.

Currently, "Nevis" is located at a distance of about 111 million kilometres from Earth, or about one-quarter of the distance between the Earth and the Sun. Its orbit is very elliptical. The comet moves at a speed of 231 thousand km/h. "Neowiz" is sent to the outer Solar system and return to Earth only after 6800 years!

The fact that a comet "Neowiz" can be seen with the naked eye, is almost unique. Last time this was in 1995-1996. It was a "great comet" Hale — BOPP. She approached the Earth and was visible for 18 months.

Translated by «Yandex.Translator»