| Added | Wed, 24/10/2018 |
| Источники | |
| Дата публикации | Tue, 23/10/2018
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| Версии |
Green ball of gas wider than Jupiter is approaching Earth. His name is comet 46P/Virtanen. Italian astronomer Rolando Ligustri photographed emerald ball on 18 October, using the Australian telescope on the remote control.
Deep within the green sphere violently steamy lump of dirty ice. The frozen nucleus of 46P/Virtanen in diameter is only 1 km away, but astronomers call it hyperactive. The nucleus of the comet emits a 1.7×1028 water molecules per second. Mixed with water vapor to diatomic carbon C2 — gaseous substance, which is often found in the atmospheres of comets and glows green in close to vacuum conditions.
16 Dec this hyperactive comet will fly at a 11.5 million kilometers to Earth. This is the tenth near approach of a comet to our planet in the entire space age, which began with the launch of Sputnik in 1957. Comet 46P/Virtanen can be seen with the naked eye for several weeks during the Christmas holidays, which astronomers have dubbed it the comet of the year.
The comet Virtanen passes through the inner Solar system every 5.4 years. Right now it is close to the Martian orbit and sent to us. It is predicted that the comet will become brighter more than 200 times by mid-December and, ultimately, its brilliance will reach +3, which is similar to the Shine of stars in the constellation of the Pleiades.
Translated by «Yandex.Translator»
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