A comet is streaking back our way after 50,000 years. The dirty snowball last visited during Neanderthal times, according to NASA.
The dirty snowball last visited during Neanderthal times, according to NASA. It will come within 26 million miles of Earth Wednesday before speeding away again, unlikely to return for millions of years.
It’s expected to brighten as it draws closer and rises higher over the horizon through the end of January, best seen in the predawn hours. By Feb. 10, it will be near Mars, a good landmark.While plenty of comets graced the sky over the past year, “this one seems probably a little bit bigger and therefore a little bit brighter and it’s coming a little bit closer to the Earth’s orbit,” said NASA’s comet and asteroid-tracking guru, Paul Chodas.
On Wednesday, it will hurtle between the orbits of Earth and Mars at a relative speed of 128,500 mph. Its nucleus is thought to be about a mile across, with its tails extending millions of miles. But “it will be bright by virtue of its close Earth passage … which allows scientists to do more experiments and the public to be able to see a beautiful comet,” University of Hawaii astronomer Karen Meech said in an email.
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