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On Sunday, Dec. 16, the comet known as 46P/Wirtanen will make one of the 10 closest comet flybys of Earth in 70 years, and you may even be able to see it without a telescope. Although the approach will be a distant 7.1 million miles (11.4 million kilometers, or 30 lunar distances) from Earth, it's still a fairly rare opportunity. "This will be the closest comet Wirtanen has come to Earth for centuries and the closest it will come to Earth for centuries," said Paul Chodas, manager of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in...

The comet 46P/Wirtanen, which passes Earth every 5.4 years, was one of three comets discovered by Carl Wirtanen in 1948 at the Lick Observatory in California. This orbit will be one of the closest comet orbits to Earth since the 1950s, according to Space.com. The comet 46P will likely not have a large observable tail because of its relatively small size, according to Space.com. It measures 0.68 miles in diameter, one-tenth the size of the popular Halley's Comet. Currently, 46P is a small blueish object in the night sky. The comet will be passing in the Southern sky, near the...

Want to see a comet whizzing by Earth? A great chance to catch one of these celestial visitors is overnight tonight, when Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner will be best visible in binoculars or a telescope. The comet, also known as "21P," will make its closest approach to Earth at around 2:30 a.m. EDT Monday (630 GMT). The bright-green comet should reach a visual magnitude of 6.5 to 7, according to EarthSky.org. This makes 21P almost bright enough to see with the naked eye — but not quite. [Bright Comets of 2018: When, Where and How to See Them] To find Comet 21P...

ISON UPDATE/Large Debris Moving Fast. Published on Dec 4, 2013 Ison Update. Solar and Quake Links http://www.BPearthWatch.ComPaul Begley Show Thursday 11 am - 2 pm Central time. LINK http://www.paulbegleyprophecy.com/web... Ison is a V shaped debris field with objects that are miles wide each..at least 21 large ones..They are moving at 2 million miles per day. Ison is moving away from "Secchi A" at that speed which makes it appear smaller from that camera each hour.. THE ROCKS ARE DARK NOW. They will become darker as they move further from the sun over Earth..They will not become smaller.

This Hubble Space Telescope model from 2003 shows us why. From afar, Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is a tiny object to image, even for the NASA probe’s powerful lens. Back then, the telescope was tasked with examining the comet to look at its size and shape to better design the Philae lander spacecraft. And the model reveals no duckie; it looks more like a sombrero from some angles. The main concern of scientists back then was redirecting Rosetta to a new target when its original comet (46P/Wirtanen) fell out of reach due to a launch delay. 67P was bigger and had a...