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Stargazing: Comet Swan is coming to town
post-gazette.com ^ | 05/12/2020 | Mike Hennessy

Posted on 05/12/2020 7:48:41 AM PDT by BenLurkin

Enter comet Swan, speeding past Earth before it laps our sun and takes another long, elliptical trip through the outer solar system. Swan last waved at Earth 25 million years ago, when mammals grazed on sprawling grasslands in the Oligocene Epoch. Now, this sun-tinged cosmic snowball may illuminate our early morning sky this month.

Swan was discovered by Michael Mattiazzo, an Australian amateur astronomer who analyzed images from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory spacecraft that observes our sun. Swan is outgassing hydrogen from water-ice on its toasty approach to the sun. This hydrogen “burp” shows up in ultraviolet images from SoHO’s Solar Wind ANisotropies camera, for which the Swan comet is named.

Comet chasers in the countryside may spot Swan low in the northeastern sky at dawn. It will move closest to Earth on May 13, and continue to brighten on its trek through constellations Perseus and Auriga. It will reach perihelion, moving closest to the sun, on May 27.

(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: astronomy; comet; cometswan; science

1 posted on 05/12/2020 7:48:41 AM PDT by BenLurkin
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To: BenLurkin

Yea!!!!

I love star gazing.


2 posted on 05/12/2020 7:51:23 AM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
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To: metmom

Will it be visible from the northern hemisphere ?


3 posted on 05/12/2020 7:57:56 AM PDT by George from New England
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To: BenLurkin

That’s tomorrow morning. Will it be visible to the naked eye?


4 posted on 05/12/2020 7:58:21 AM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Tyrants don't just give you your freedoms back. You have to take them.)
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To: BenLurkin

“Comet Swan is coming to town...”

So you’d better not pout.


5 posted on 05/12/2020 8:20:25 AM PDT by WKUHilltopper
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To: Blood of Tyrants

The problem is that it is so near the sun that morning twilight interferes with seeing it.


6 posted on 05/12/2020 8:23:09 AM PDT by hopespringseternal
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To: George from New England

I hope so.


7 posted on 05/12/2020 8:24:44 AM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
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To: Blood of Tyrants

Magnitude 5. Might be best to find first with binoculars. And then the naked eye.


8 posted on 05/12/2020 8:26:09 AM PDT by MustKnowHistory
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To: hopespringseternal

And I’ll bet that the town just NE of me will be enough light pollution so I can’t see it.


9 posted on 05/12/2020 8:31:45 AM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Tyrants don't just give you your freedoms back. You have to take them.)
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To: George from New England
Look in the northeast sky just before dawn.


10 posted on 05/12/2020 9:11:30 AM PDT by CtBigPat (2020 is becoming everything 2012 aspired to be.)
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To: SunkenCiv

*ping*


11 posted on 05/12/2020 8:50:45 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (Dear Mr. Kotter, #Epsteindidntkillhimself - Signed, Epstein's Mother)
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To: fieldmarshaldj
[singing] comet Swan is comin' to town...

12 posted on 05/13/2020 8:28:45 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: SunkenCiv

The black swan already came to town.

Thanks for posting. Love me some comet out gassing.


13 posted on 05/13/2020 8:32:30 AM PDT by CJ Wolf ( #wwg1wga #gin&tonic #Godwins)
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To: BenLurkin

It only comes by every 25,000,000 years?

Nancy Pelosi was just a young girl the last time this thing came around.


14 posted on 05/13/2020 8:35:15 AM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer”)
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