Why do astronomers find comets interesting

There are some good Web sites as well where you can put in a position and you can see any known objects in that area. So your software finds possible objects every night but you had to go a year or two before one turned out to be real?

For the last two comets I went though about 70, images to find each comet. I think the actual discovery is probably not as exciting now as it was for the first one.

Tell me about this latest discovery. How long was it before you knew it was a new comet for sure? It was probably about a day before I knew. At that point I knew we had a comet. But you need to get enough observations of the comet and its positions in the sky to calculate an orbital trajectory. Generally you need about two to three days of those observations. Once you have found the orbit you can compare it to any historic objects that may have been here in the past and are returning.

So your new comet has not been to the inner solar system before? Apparently 13, years ago it did [according to orbital calculations]—but not in recent human history. It will return in 8, years. How did you get into amateur astronomy?

I grew up in a place called Cumnock, in central New South Wales. Because it was so far away from any major cities we had very dark skies, and I think it was there where I became interested. And when did you become a more serious comet hunter? Around I kind of fell into that. I was following a lot of the known comets as well as looking at other objects.

But one thing I noticed is that being in the Southern Hemisphere, a lot of comets were not being found. All of the people looking for comets appeared to be in the Northern Hemisphere. Where Do Comets Come From? Exploration of Comets Exploration of Comets Scientists have long wanted to study comets in some detail, tantalized by the few images of comet Halley's nucleus.

JPL's lucky peanuts are an unofficial tradition at big mission events. It's suspected that about 5, years ago a comet swept within 23 million miles of the Sun, closer than the innermost planet Mercury. Models and lab tests suggest the asteroid could be venting sodium vapor as it orbits close to the Sun, explaining its increase in brightness.

A one-time visitor to our inner solar system is helping explain more about our own origins. A wayward young comet-like object orbiting among the giant planets has found a temporary parking place along the way. As Chile and Argentina witnessed the total solar eclipse on Dec. When scientists downlinked data from Parker Solar Probe's sixth orbit, there was a surprise waiting for them: a sungrazing comet.

Two Views of a Sungrazing Comet. The next full Moon will be on Thursday afternoon, Oct. The Moon will appear full from Wednesday morning through Saturday morning. This is the first time Hubble has photographed a comet of this brightness at such resolution after this close of a pass by the Sun.

The Earth has one less asteroid to worry about thanks to the research of an international team of scientists at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. The next full Moon will be midday on Monday, August 3, A comet visiting from the most distant parts of our solar system is putting on a spectacular nighttime display.

The next full Moon will be early Sunday morning, July 5, Short-period comets, which orbit the Sun in years or less, are usually Kuiper Belt objects, while long-period comets that take hundreds or thousands of years to orbit the Sun generally come from the Oort Cloud. Community Leaders: Notable Astronomers. By: Richard S. Wright Jr. November 9, Imaging Foundations with Richard Wright.

October 19, Astronomy in Space with David Dickinson. By: David Dickinson October 16, By: Monica Young September 28,