During the following couple of weeks, we’ll get an opportunity of considering a comet as it clears past the sun.
The comet’s name is SWAN, an abbreviation for the Solar Wind Anisotropies camera on NASA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). Formally assigned as C/2020 F8, the comet was found by Australian novice space expert, Michael Mattiazzo, while investigating SWAN symbolism on March 25.
Comet SWAN at first grabbed Mattiazzo’s eye since it evidently was experiencing an abrupt upheaval of hydrogen gas — something that SOHO’s SWAN instrument is especially all around adjusted to getting.
Water ice from the comet’s nucleus disappears as the comet moves toward the sun. Solar ultraviolet radiation separates water particles, and the freed hydrogen molecules sparkle in bright light.
The comet was 135 million miles (217 million kilometres) from the sun when Mattiazzo first observed it, yet it will, at last, come to inside 40.2 million miles (64.6 million km) of our star when it shows up at its perihelion, its nearest point to the sun, on May 27.
Claude Denni was born and raised in San Jose. Claude has worked as a journalist for nearly a decade having contributed to several large publications including the Daily Democrat here in Californiar and NPR. As a journalist for Coastal Morning Star, Claude covers national and international developments.