http://spaceweather.com this comet should still be on the front page. anyobody see it yet? It's absolutely massive! should be passing pretty close to the Sun. They say the comet and the large tail that trails it is actually bigger than the Sun. far out maaaan!
Imagine if that thing crashed into the Earth? Kabloom!!! I have been observing Mars in the mornings (before sunrise) in the eastern skies. It's the brightest object in the eastern sky. I will have to keep an eye out for NEAT (if we ever get clear skies again)
According to "Skywatch" magazine, the comet is currently too close to the sun for us to see it. But here is the latest NASA image of it:
is that what that is?? it seems almost unnaturally bright. really amazing to imagine how far away it is...and how bright it is here, nonetheless.
I believe that's true of many comets and their tails (the ones that approach close to the sun anyway). Many of them extend from the sun out towards the orbits of Mercury and Venus. The sun is "only" about 900,000 miles in diameter.
In August it will be closer to Earth than it has ever been. http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mars_orbit_030121-1.html
I had some good views of Saturn last Dec. can't wait for Mars to peak. When comet Hale- Bopp came through in 95/96? I forget...Mars was really bright-really amazing. It should be twice as bright during this pass so I wouldn't miss it- Mars will probably be more impressive than the Leonid Meteor "storm"
The cool thing about the approach of Mars is that NASA's using the opportunity to send two rovers to do some research on the surface, and the proximity is making that cheaper than it would usually cost to send even one. Should be interesting to see what comes out of that.
http://soho.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime/javagif/gifs_small/20030218_0454_c3.gif thought some of you might like to see this. first attempt at imaging, hope i got it right.
