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Comet 45P to be spotted in next few days closest to Earth

Comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova Can Be Spotted In The Next Few Days Using Binoculars Or A Telescope, NASA Told On Saturday.

News Nation Bureau | Edited By : Navnidhi Chugh | Updated on: 12 Feb 2017, 06:16:45 PM
Comet 45P to be spotted in next few days closest to Earth

New Delhi:

Comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova can be spotted in the next few days using binoculars or a telescope, NASA told on Saturday.

“It’s the first of a trio of comets that will, between now and the end of 2018, pass close enough to Earth for backyard observers to try to spot and for scientists to study using ground-based instruments,” the U.S. space agency said.

Backyard astronomers are recommended to use binoculars or a telescope to have an eye for the comet several times for the coming days, NASA said.

It’s named Comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdušáková after the astronomers who discovered it in 1948: Minoru Honda, Antonín Mrkos, and Ludmila Pajdušáková. 45P revolves around Sun and out by Jupiter about every 5-1/4 years and is a short-period comet. This time Earth will be closest to Earth, at a distance of about 12.4 million kilometres, through the end of this century.

The comet will also pass by Earth in 2032 but it will be farther from our planet at a distance of nearly about 48 million kilometres. Scientists have taken benefit of 45P’s approach with the help of NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility in order to investigate the gases, dust and ice particles that are released from the comet nucleus and show up in the coma and tail.

In a search for water, methane and other compounds, astronomers get clues about how comet is put together and where it originated in the cloud of material that surrounded the young sun as the solar system formed.

By keeping a good observation of the comet more than once, astronomers can notice how the comet changes over time. “Observing a comet multiple times over successive orbits is like taking snapshots at different stages of life,” said Joseph Nuth, a senior scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

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First Published : 12 Feb 2017, 06:06:00 PM

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