The sky always has something exciting to offer! And yet again the skygazers have a beautiful phenomenon coming up. It is none other than the Comet Neowise, or C/20202 F3 which happens to be the brightest comet that will grace the sky of the northern hemisphere in decades. It was first discovered on March 27, 2020, by the Neowise space telescope after the sky witnessed Swan and Atlas in early 2020. For the unversed, NEOWISE is the short form for Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. The pictures of the newly discovered comet were first shared by a NASA astronaut Bob Behnken on Twitter on Sunday and left the internet amazed. Captioning the same, he wrote, "Last night's fireworks, for real. Because Science. #NEOWISE #comet." The comet is currently 200 million kilometers away from Earth but is bright enough to be watched with a naked eye. And the good news is it will be visible at night after around 12-15 July and will remain sometime until August this year.
Have a look at the pictures here:
As per NASA, "Through about the middle of the month, the comet is visible around 10 degrees above the northeastern horizon (the width of your outstretched fist) in the hour before dawn. From mid-July on, it’s best viewed as an evening object, rising increasingly higher above the northwestern horizon. The comet takes about 6,800 years to make one lap around its long, stretched out orbit, so it won’t visit the inner solar system again for many thousands of years."
Meanwhile, check out how Twitterati was left impressed at the beautiful pictures of the rare comet that were shared by many on the micro-blogging website:
What are you waiting for? Grab a pair of good binoculars to witness the event!