July 13 marks Comet K2’s closest approach to Earth, and we have a chance to see it on July 14. David Jewitt, a professor of Earth, planetary and space sciences at UCLA, said there is a chance of spotting the comet on Wednesday or Thursday. NASA astronomers also said that K2 will be closest to Earth on July 13, but may be most visible on July 14. The comet is called C/2017 K2 PANSTARRS, more commonly known as K2. On the aforementioned days, it will come closest to our planet and complete the final round of the solar system.
As he told USA TODAY, Jewitt has been studying the comet for five years. He reminded observers that Comet K2 will still be far from Earth, so viewing it requires at least a small telescope or binoculars. According to him, the comet is about 170 million miles away from Earth, far exceeding the distance between Earth and the sun, which is about 93 million miles away.
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History of Comet K2
Experts at the Hawaii Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System first became interested in the comet on May 21, 2017. It is located between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus, 1.5 billion miles from the sun, according to NASA. It has traveled millions of years from the cold depths of the solar system.
Photos of the comet before its discovery in 2013 were later discovered, according to experts. When NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope imaged K2, it was the farthest active comet ever seen. According to Jewitt, it was found at a distance of 17 times the distance from the sun.
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Comet C/2014 UN271 (also known as Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein) passed K2 in June 2021, as the comet was found at its farthest point from Earth.
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Origin of Comet K2
The Oort Cloud is the most remote region of the solar system, and many comets are thought to have originated here. That’s where K2 comes in. According to NASA researchers, the cloud is a giant spherical shell made up of icy space debris debris at least the size of a mountain range. As such, they describe K2 as a frozen “city-sized snowball of dust and ice.”
According to NASA, astronomers discovered K2 in a region of the solar system with a temperature of -440 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s 1/225 the amount of sunlight we see from Earth. The comet contains material that has been frozen since the beginning of cosmic time, Jewett said. “When we study these comets, we are trying to study material that has been preserved since the beginning of the solar system,” he added.
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Distance from Earth to K2
According to Gianluca Masi, an Italian-based astronomer and director of the Virtual Telescope Project, K2 will be about 170 million miles from Earth on Wednesday night. He said K2 is currently the brightest comet in the sky.
Against the backdrop of Earth’s motion in July, the comet’s total velocity averaged 21 miles per second, according to Massey. When K2 reaches its minimum distance around 11 p.m. ET Wednesday, the comet will be traveling at zero miles per second near Earth, he said.
“If we consider the component of this velocity in our direction — that is, the speed at which the comet approaches or leaves us — we get that this component is 0 (miles per second) at its minimum distance from us, but it is It will stay below (six miles per second) this month,” Masi said.
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What is the charm of K2?
The “unusually huge” distance that K2 covers when it comes from the Oort Cloud is so interesting. According to the telescope, K2 became active at an unprecedented 35 au, which corresponds to the typical distance between Earth and the sun. According to the Center for Near-Earth Object Research at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, K2’s close approach on Wednesday night was equivalent to 1.8 au. “Neptune is 30 times the distance from Earth to the sun,” Jewett said. “It’s very active, it’s very distant, and that’s why it’s scientifically interesting, because it allows us to study any process that drives activity at very large distances and very low temperatures.” According to Jewitt, having K2 at What keeps it spinning at such a great distance from the sun is frozen carbon monoxide.
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When and where can we get a glimpse of it?
The Italian-based Virtual Telescope Project will be livestreaming Thursday at 6:15 p.m. ET for those without a telescope. According to Jewitt, K2 isn’t necessarily a special observation, as hundreds of other comets have come close to Earth. What makes the comet even harder to see, according to Massey, is the conflict between the date of K2’s flyby and the full moon.
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Therefore, amateur comet watchers are advised to choose a time during the upcoming night when the moon is not in the night sky. The best time to look up is before the moonrise in the evening. According to Massey, the comet is visible from both the northern and southern hemispheres of the constellation Ophiuchus. A diagram for locating comets is given below:
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“A dark sky will provide the best view,” Massey said.
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Both Jewitt and Masi said a pair of binoculars or a small telescope would be needed to observe the comet. Small telescopes will allow you to see the comet wobble near Earth for a few months.
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