See stunning photos of this bright comet in SLO County. It won’t return for 6,800 years
One of the brightest comets to light up the night sky in decades is giving local stargazers quite the show.
The stunning NEOWISE comet is named after NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer spacecraft, which discovered it on March 27.
According to NASA, the NEOWISE comet has “a nucleus measuring roughly three miles in diameter. Its dust and ion tails stretch hundreds of thousands to millions of miles while pointing away from the sun.”
“Comets are made of frozen leftovers from the formation of the solar system roughly 4.6 billion years ago,” NASA said. “The masses of dust, rock, and ice heat up when approaching the sun; they spew gases and dust into a glowing head and tail as they get closer.”
According to PG&E meteorologist John Lindsey, the comet is so bright that it can be seen without binoculars or a telescope.
This week, the NEOWISE comet can be seen around one hour after sunset in the northwestern heavens below the Big Dipper constellation, Lindsey said.
Lindsey said the NEOWISE comet will be closest to Earth on Wednesday and Thursday, when it will be 64 million miles away as it crosses our planet’s orbit.
After Thursday, it will move away from the Earth, Lindsey said, not to appear again for another 6,800 years.
San Luis Obispo County residents shared their photos of the dazzling nighttime display:
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Do you have photos or videos of the NEOWISE comet? Send them to editor Sarah Linn at slinn@thetribunenews.com
This story was originally published July 21, 2020 at 9:54 AM.
