COMET NEOWISE                       

The recently discovered comet called C/2020 F3, also known as NEOWISE after the NASA telescope that discovered it, will make its closest approach to the Earth on July 22. On the day, the comet, which takes 6,800 years to complete one lap around its orbit, will be at a distance of 64 million miles or 103 million kilometers while crossing Earth’s outside orbit.

What are comets?

• Comets or “dirty snowballs” are mostly made of dust, rocks and ice, the remnants from time the solar system was formed over 4.6 billion years ago.
• In the distant past, people thought of comets as “long-haired” stars that would appear unpredictably in the sky.
• Comets do not have light of their own and what humans are able to see from Earth is the reflection of the sun’s light off the comet as well as the energy released by the gas molecules after it is absorbed from the sun.

Why do they get close to the sun?

• Comets may be occasionally pushed into orbits closer to the sun and the Earth’s neighborhood due to forces of gravity of other planets.
• The less-predictable comets can be found in the Oort cloud that is about 100,000 AU from the sun, or 100,000 times the distance between the Earth and the sun.
• Comets in this cloud can take as long as 30 million years to complete one rotation around the sun.

Why do astronomers study and track comets?

• Astronomers study comets since they believe that they hold important clues about the formation of the solar system and it is possible that comets brought water and other organic compounds, which are the building blocks of life to Earth.