Comet called C/2020 F3, also known as NEOWISE got discovered by the NASA telescope after it make its closest approach to the Earth on July 22.
The comet, which takes 6,800 years to complete one lap around its orbit, will be at a distance of 64 million miles or 103 million kilometres while crossing Earth’s outside orbit.
What is Coma?
The atmosphere created by the outer layer of the comet which get released due to its proximity to the sun, when the comet cruised inside Mercury’s orbit forming gas and dust from its icy surface. This atmosphere sometimes leads to formation of a bright tail of debris that can extend for thousands or millions of kilometres.
What Are The Differences Between An Asteroid, Comet, Meteoroid, Meteor and Meteorite?
What is NASA’s NEOWISE?
Launched in December 2009 as the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, the space telescope was originally designed to survey the sky in infrared, detecting asteroids, stars and some of the faintest galaxies in space.
It did so successfully until completing its primary mission in February 2011.
In December 2013, it was re-purposed for the NEOWISE project as an instrument to study near-Earth objects, or NEOs, as well as more distant asteroids and comets.
