All things Astronomy

[nathrix]

In some other interesting news and discoveries...let's discuss Astronomy.

 

With the Corona pandemic drowning out almost all other news, keeping space observations and discussions at a minimum, a very fast moving NEO (not a Tacx NEO smart trainer ) discovered ONLY recently (28th of Dec 2019 to be exact - meanining there's NO record of it that we know of thus far), will pass earth at 0.6 au end of May this year (1 au = distance from earth to the sun).

 

Earth will move through it’s debris/tail field which is four times the size of Jupiter!! They worked out the last time this comet came round and visited

 was 6 thousand years ago...We're in for an interesting ride (literally a space ride) and should see and experience spectacular events.

 

Halley's Comet or Comet Halley, officially designated 1P/Halley, is a short-period comet visible from Earth every 75–76 years. Halley is the only known short-period comet that is regularly visible to the naked eye from Earth, and the only naked-eye comet that might appear twice in a human lifetime. Edit: The last time was 1986.

 

Update: been confirmed that it has broken up in seven pieces now as it is nearing our sun to sweep around it and cater pulled back into outer space.

Edited April 14, 2020 by nathrix ® ©™

[Rocket-Boy]

Those kinds of events are both interesting and terrifying at the same time.

I think of it like breaking the balls in a game of pool, they bounce all over the place and you have to figure out where its going to go...

[Frosty]

In some other interesting news and discoveries...

 

With the Corona pandemic drowning out almost all other news, keeping space observations and discussions at a minimum, a very fast moving NEO (not a Tacx NEO smart trainer )discovered ONLY recently (28th of Dec 2019 to be exact - meanining there's NO record of it that we know of thus far), will pass earth at 0.6 au end of May this year (1 au = distance from earth to the sun).

 

Earth will move through it’s debris/tail field which is four times the size of Jupiter!! They worked out the last time this comet came round and visited

was 6 thousand years ago...We're in for an interesting ride (literally a space ride) and should see and experience spectacular events.

 

Halley's Comet or Comet Halley, officially designated 1P/Halley, is a short-period comet visible from Earth every 75–76 years. Halley is the only known short-period comet that is regularly visible to the naked eye from Earth, and the only naked-eye comet that might appear twice in a human lifetime. The last time was 1997.

 

Update: been confirmed that it has broken up in seven pieces now as it is nearing our sun to sweep around it and cater pulled back into outer space.

Halley’s Comet was last seen in 1986. I was

at veldskool in Graskop, when we were told about it.

[bertusras]

Ja no there's a bit of misinformation going on here. Halley's Comet was 1986. Comet Hale-Bopp was 1997.

 

It will pass Earth at a Minimum Orbit Intersection Distance of ‎0.063 AU, not 0.6 AU, which is approximately 116,855,706 km, or somewhere between the orbit of Mercury and the Sun.

 

 

As of 2 April 2020 it appears to have started breaking up, but comets are weird and it could yet brighten up again, only time will tell.

 

 

Amateur Astronomers have been tracking it with fairly large telescopes, but it will (if it will) only become visible to the naked eye towards the end of this month. It peaked at 7 Magnitude, but has since receded to 9 Magnitude (the larger the number, the dimmer the object, and going from 9 -> 7 makes it about six times dimmer).

 

Edited April 12, 2020 by bertusras

[bertusras]

C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy) was only discovered on 27 November 2011 and passed the Sun on 16 December 2011, less than a month after its initial discovery. It skirted very close to the sun at only 140,000 kilometres, and survived the trip around, leading to a magnificent tail visible to the naked eye, as seen from the International Space Station:

 

 

It also passed by Earth a bit closer than ATLAS is being predicted to:

 

 

I spent a couple weeks chasing it, but due to excessive rain and clouds over the holidays I was only able to catch it on the 3rd of January, by which time it had dimmed significantly (no longer visible to the naked eye, so I was super chuffed once the processed images revealed a faint, but long tail)

 

Edited April 12, 2020 by bertusras

[Slowbee]

SO when do we need to go outside and look up ?

[Kranswurm]

SO when do we need to go outside and look up ?

https://earthsky.org/space/how-to-see-bright-comet-c-2019-y4-atlas

 

You really should not be that lazy

[Slowbee]

So you posted a link (which I also found), but not wanting to wade through an entire webpage (lazy), I was wanting to tap into hubbers expertise for a quick answer.

 

When do I go outside and look up ?

[Kranswurm]

So you posted a link (which I also found), but not wanting to wade through an entire webpage (lazy), I was wanting to tap into hubbers expertise for a quick answer.

 

When do I go outside and look up ?

Any time you like.Nothing to see.

[Slowbee]

Any time you like.Nothing to see.

Oh dear, well that just wont do

[nathrix]

Oh dear, well that just wont do

Start looking end of May. Hope to see plenty action in the sky with falling debris/rocks/meteorites/viruses(apparently viruses comes from space) or what ever it’s called.

[Kranswurm]

So you posted a link (which I also found), but not wanting to wade through an entire webpage (lazy), I was wanting to tap into hubbers expertise for a quick answer.

 

When do I go outside and look up ?

Actually looking back on this I realize what the problem is.You have missed all the detail.There are no quick answers.

[nathrix]

[Slowbee]

I went outside and looked up.

 

And I saw ......

 

 

 

 

clouds, lots and lots of clouds.

[Shebeen]

C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy) was only discovered on 27 November 2011 and passed the Sun on 16 December 2011, less than a month after its initial discovery. It skirted very close to the sun at only 140,000 kilometres, and survived the trip around, leading to a magnificent tail visible to the naked eye, as seen from the International Space Station:

 

 

It also passed by Earth a bit closer than ATLAS is being predicted to:

 

 

I spent a couple weeks chasing it, but due to excessive rain and clouds over the holidays I was only able to catch it on the 3rd of January, by which time it had dimmed significantly (no longer visible to the naked eye, so I was super chuffed once the processed images revealed a faint, but long tail)

 

thank you for the insight here...clearly an expert, enthusiast  and much appreciated

[nathrix]

I'm I correct to think that this comet (broken up in 5 fragments now, reminds me of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9) will be passing through too close for comfort than anything we've seen before in our lifetime?