Wednesday, April 14, 2004

New Comet Set for Live Internet Show

Space.com says:



Green's calculations show that the comet will continue to approach the Sun in the coming days. It should reach perihelion (its closest approach to the Sun) on April 17, when it will be just 0.169 astronomical unit (15.7 million miles, or 25.2 million kilometers) from the solar system's central star. This is well inside the orbit of the planet Mercury.





The projected brightness of this comet is somewhat uncertain, although right now predictions indicate that it could get as bright as 2nd magnitude. That would be easily seen with the naked eye. However, because of its very close proximity to the Sun, the comet will be impossible to observe for a week or more.





As it dashes past the Sun however, comet Bradfield will be visible to those using computers and accessing near-live images from the SOHO Web site, primarily in images from the LASCO C3 instrument.



The comet should be within range of the SOHO imagery from about April 17 through April 19.



As Thomas Dolby once said "Science!"

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