NASA asteroid-hunting plan spots new comet — and maybe a 2nd
A space-hunting module has speckled what could be dual new comets, with one that will pass Earth in February.
The initial object, called 2016 WF9, was found Nov. 27. At a farthest, it nears a circuit of Jupiter. It takes about 4.9 years for one finish orbit, that will eventually move it within Earth’s orbit.
The find was done by NASA’s NEOWISE module (Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) an asteroid-hunting project.
Astronomers are uncertain about either 2016 WF9 is an asteroid or a comet. Comets are icy, dry element left over from a arrangement of a solar system, while asteroids are hilly or lead in nature. In this case, a newly detected intent reflects light like a comet, and orbits like a comet, though it doesn’t possess a gas cloud of a comet.
As comets nearby a sun, a solidified element warms and sublimates, transitioning from plain to a gas, producing a tail we compared with them.
In a statement, NEOWISE emissary principal questioner James “Gerbs” Bauer during NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory pronounced 2016 WF9 “could have cometary origins. This intent illustrates that a range between asteroids and comets is a becloud one; maybe over time this intent has mislaid a infancy of a volatiles that dawdle on or only underneath a surface.”
Definitely a comet
The intent — that astronomers have totalled to be between 0.5 to 1 kilometre far-reaching — will come within 51 million kilometres of Earth on Feb. 25. Though that might seem near, astronomers highlight that it poses no risk to Earth now, or in a foreseeable future.
But another intent was also discovered. This second one is really a comet, as it’s already releasing dirt as it nears a sun. The name of a comet is C/2016 U1 NEOWISE, and it could turn a intensity binocular aim as it nears Earth. However, a liughtness of comets can be wily to predict, so scientists can’t contend definitively that it will be a good sight.
If it does lighten so that it can be seen in binoculars, it will be visible in a northern hemisphere, in a southeastern sky only before morning during a initial week of January.
The comet will strech a closest indicate to a intent in a circuit on Jan. 14. After that, it heads behind out to a outdoor solar complement in an circuit that takes thousands of years. And again, it poses no hazard to Earth.
Article source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/nasa-new-comets-discovered-1.3916698?cmp=rss