JOIN USComet Swan to light up the sky before sunrise until May 20
Lighting up the early morning sky on the North-Eastern horizon, ‘Comet Swan’, hailed as the best comet to visible to naked eyes in recent times, will pass close to the Earth’s orbit.
According to astronomers, the comet can be seen from 4.30 am to 5.00 am on the Eastern horizon for a couple of days starting from Wednesday.
The comet swan will be visible clearly to naked eyes until May 20, according to Pramod G Galgali, the director of Jawaharlal Planetarium.
“As the comet can be seen only towards the sunrise time, it gets blurred and invisible as we move close to the sunrise hour. Hence, the first half-an-hour will be an ideal time to see the comet,” he explained.
It will be passing closet to the Earth’s orbit at a distance of 83.3 million km. As per the astronomer’s opinion, the comet will fly past at a speed of 40 to 50 km per second.
“Very rarely we get to see comets with our naked eyes. Comet swan is also hailed across the world as the best comet to be seen in years. People can see it without the help of any telescopic instrument. It has a magnitude of 5.7 and can be spotted close to the Pisces constellation,” Galgali explained.
While passing around the Sun, the comet swan, energised by the Sun’s ultraviolet radiation, is colouring the solar system.
“The carbon compounds all along with its tail glow in bluish cyan colour while it will be glowing green around its nucleus,” explained an amateur astronomer from Bengaluru.