Comet NEOWISE offers rare nighttime sky show - Ottawa Citizen

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Ottawa area skywatchers can enjoy a rare sight this week as the best and brightest comet in a generation appears in the night sky.

Comet NEOWISE made its slingshot turn around the Sun on July 3 and is on its way back to the Oort Cloud on the edge of the solar system where it originated. Until this week, you would have had to get up in the pre-dawn hours to see the comet and its long fan-like trail, but since Monday NEOWISE is visible in the evening after dark.

“It’s one of the comets of the decade,” said Ottawa’s Gary Boyle, who writes the The Backyard Astronomer column for the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. “It’s an amazing sight and everyone should have a look.

“Sometimes you can only see them with a telescope, but this one is a ‘Wowee!'”

NEOWISE, so-called because it’s a “near-Earth object” discovered by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, was first discovered on March 27. Comets are frozen balls of dust and gas that orbit the sun. It’s hard for astronomers to predict how bright a comet will glow and many of them break up as they approach.

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2020-07-14 20:36:54Z
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