The green comet was discovered on Maby astronomers using the Zwicky Transient Facility, a wide-field camera at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory in Palomar Mountain, California, the United States. Nicknamed “dirty snowballs” by astronomers, comets are balls of ice, dust and rocks and wander towards the inner solar system when they’re dislodged from various gravitational forces, becoming more visible as they venture closer to the heat given off by the sun.įewer than a dozen comets are discovered each year by observatories around the world. While plenty of comets have graced the sky over the past year, “this one seems probably a little bit bigger and therefore a little bit brighter and it’s coming a little bit closer to the Earth’s orbit”, said NASA’s comet-and asteroid-tracking expert Paul Chodas. Stargazers in the Southern Hemisphere will have to wait until next month for a glimpse.įinding a remote location to avoid light pollution in populated areas is key to catching a nice view of the comet as it heads away from the sun and back towards the solar system’s outer reaches. By February 10, it will be near Mars, a good landmark. It is expected to brighten as it draws closer and rises higher over the horizon through the end of January, and is best seen in the predawn hours. This harmless comet already is visible in a clear northern night sky with binoculars and small telescopes, and possibly the naked eye in the darkest corners of the Northern Hemisphere. The cosmic visitor will swing by the planet within 42 million kilometres (26 million miles) before speeding away again, unlikely to return for millions of years. A green-hued comet is expected to be the most visible to stargazers on Wednesday as it shoots past Earth and the sun for the first time in about 50,000 years.ĭiscovered less than a year ago, the “dirty snowball” last passed near Earth during Neanderthal times, according to NASA.
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