• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Weatherboy

Weatherboy Weather News, Maps, RADAR, Satellite, and Forecasts.

  • Local
  • Earth Science News
  • RADAR
  • Current Warnings
  • Satellite
  • Current Maps
  • Forecast Maps
  • Video

Christmas Comet Arrives this Weekend

by Weatherboy Team Meteorologist - December 13, 2018

Comet46p should become more visible this weekend in the night sky. Image: NASA
Comet46p should become more visible this weekend in the night sky. Image: NASA




Comet 46P/ Wirtanen, also known as the “Christmas Comet”,  will be making a close pass of Earth  on December 16, 2018, which will start appearing bright in the night sky this weekend. With its expected path, it’ll  be at its closest distance to Earth in over 400 years. The comet will pass just 7,199,427 miles from Earth, making this one of the 10 closest comet approaches since 1950 and the 20th closest approach of a comet dating as far back as the ninth century.

U.S. astronomer Carl Wirtanen first spied the comet on the night of January 17, 1948, while surveying the sky from the Lick Observatory in California. Because he discovered it, the comet bears his name.



Comet 46P / Wirtanen  is a member of the Jupiter family of comets, which means  their farthest point from the sun is  near the orbit of Jupiter. It will be bright enough to see with the naked eye above the eastern horizon all month long, and can be seen even better with a telescope and/or binoculars.

The image shared above from NASA is a 120 second image of the comet was taken Dec. 2 by an iTelescope 50mm refractor located at an observatory near Mayhill, New Mexico. The streak below the comet was produced by a rocket body (upper stage) passing through the telescope’s field of view during the exposure. Specifically, the upper stage is the one that placed the Indonesian Garuda 1 communications satellite into geostationary orbit back in February of 2000. At the time of this image, the Garuda 1 upper stage was 15,880 miles from the observatory; Comet Wirtanen was 10.3 million miles distant.



The comet will appear as a gray-green fuzzy blob in the night sky; some with a telescope may be able to detect a faint tail. Sky watchers should  look toward the constellation Taurus, just west of Orion, which can be quickly found through the three stars of Orion’s belt. Comet Wirtanen will lie between two bright star clusters, the Pleiades and the Hyades.

Those watching the comet will get a double feature; the Geminid meteor showers will also be at their peak this weekend. NASA is forecasting as many as 100 meteors per hour, which should light up the night sky with frequent shooting stars.

Primary Sidebar

Sponsored Ad

Search

Latest News

  • Severe Weather Threat Returns to Mississippi Valley on Friday
  • Deadline for SBA Aid for Kauai Drought Coming Soon
  • Another Atmospheric River Event Slams into West Coast; More Epic Rain, Snow Expected
  • Anniversary of 1964 Great Alaskan “Good Friday” Earthquake and Tsunami
  • Tornado Watches, Warnings Issued as Severe Weather Impacts Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, & Gerogia
  • After Violent Night, Storms Shift to Ohio and Pennsylvania
  • Preliminary NTSB Report Shows Something other than Turbulence Killed Passenger on New England Flight
  • SEVERE Geomagnetic Storm Alert Issued; Massive Aurora On Display in North America
About | Careers | Contact | Contests
Terms | Privacy | Ad Choices
Weatherboy is a (R) Registered Trademark of isarithm LLC, All Rights Reserved.
All content herein is Copyright by Isarithm LLC 1997-2022