What is Comet NEOWISE?
C/2020 F3 NEOWISE also known as Comet NEOWISE is a long period comet discovered on March 27, 2020, by astronomers during the NEOWISE mission of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) space telescope. At that time, it was an 18th-magnitude object, located 300 million km away from the Sun and 250 million km away from Earth.
Can you see it?
Yes, it is bright enough to be visible to the naked eye. It is one of the brightest comets in the northern hemisphere since Comet Hale–Bopp in 1997. Under dark skies, it can be clearly seen with the naked eye and might remain visible to the naked eye throughout most of July 2020.
Size of Comet NEOWISE?
NEOWISE is about 5 kilometres
Speed of Comet NEOWISE?
The comet is traveling at about 65 km per second 231,000 km/hr.
Where to look for it?
It can be seen in the northern hemisphere, can been seen in north-western sky also . The comet is visible at morning and evening. Sky-spotters can spot in about the time of sunset.
Unfortunately its is not visible in Southern hemisphere.
Its is even seen from the International Space Station.
At approximately 6:39 AM IST (9:09 PM EDT) on July 23rd comet – C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) will reach its closest distance to Earth. At that time, the comet will be 103.5 million kilometres away from Earth, according to NASA’s orbit calculator. Shining with a magnitude of 2.2, the comet is currently about as bright as Polaris, the North Star, and can be observed in dark skies in naked eyes without the aid of a telescope or binoculars.
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