Comet From the Depths of the Oort Cloud Will Be at Perihelion Tomorrow (December 19, 2022)
Tomorrow, December 19, 2022, a visitor from nearly a light-year away will come closest to the Sun (perihelion) after several million years of travel through the Oort Cloud. This visitor is recently discovered comet C/2017 K2 (PANSTARRS).
The Solar System To Scale [Infographic]
The following is a huge infographic showing the true scale of the solar system with all its planets, minor bodies and the most famous probes we have sent out into deep space. Scientists measure distances in our solar system in astronomical units (AU). One AU is slightly less than the average distance from the Earth to the sun, or nearly 150 million kilometers. Source Space.com
Hartley 2 Comet
The Hartley 2 comet has made it to the news recently: first because of the comet’s flyby near Earth and then due to it being visited by the Deep Impact spacecraft. The comet is commonly known as Hartley 2, but it’s official scientific name is 103P/Hartley. Image credit: Ethan Siegel. 2010 Earth approach The comet passed within 0.12 astronomical units (18,000,000 km) of Earth on October 20, 2010 and was visible to the naked eye. Hartley 2 is a small periodic comet with an orbital period of 6.46 years. This means that it’s orbit is very close to the Sun for a comet. Most of them originate in the Oort…
