Poisonous comet heading for Earth

mercurial

mercurial

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A comet that blasts out poisonous gases as it streaks through space is heading towards Earth. - well, within 38 million miles of us, at least.

Comet Lulin, which glows an eerie green colour and will be visible to the naked eye, was discovered just over a year ago and is heading into our inner solar system for the first time.

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It will have its closest brush with Earth on February 24, when it will flash past 38million miles from our planet. Mars was 34.6million miles away at its closest ever approach.

Lulin's green colour comes from the gases that make up its Jupiter-sized atmosphere. Jets spewing from the comet's nucleus contain cyanogen, a poisonous gas found in many comets, and diatomic carbon.

Both substances glow green when illuminated by sunlight in the near-vacuum of space.

An amazing photo of Lulin was captured just days ago by amateur astronomer Jack Newton from his backyard observatory in Arizona.

Jack said: 'My retired eyes still cannot see the brightening comet but my 14-inch telescope picked it up quite nicely on February 1st.'

A Nasa spokesman added: 'The comet makes its closest approach to Earth on February 24, 2009. Dark country skies would be required to see it but noone can say for sure, however, because this appears to be Lulin's first visit to the inner solar system and its first exposure to intense sunlight. Surprises are possible.

'The comet rises a few hours before the sun and may be found about a third of the way up the southern sky before dawn.'

The comet was discovered in July 2007 by a 19-year-old meteorology student called Quanzhi Ye from a photo taken at Lulin Observatory in Taiwan, hence its name.

He said: 'It is a green beauty that could become visible to the naked eye any day now.'
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Link
 
How to See Comet Lulin
Comet Lulin will be passing through Libra in January and early February. At this time of year, the constellation Libra does not rise into the night sky until the hours just before sunrise. Libra will be situated in the southeast between Virgo with its bright star Spica and Scorpius. Libra's most notable feature is a triangle of three stars. On February 5 and 6, Comet Lulin will be easier to spot as it passes by the second brightest of Libra's stars, Zubenelgenbui. In January and early February, the comet will still be rather dim, around 8th magnitude, requiring a mid-sized telescope to see it.

Comet Lulin Reaches Its Peak Brightness
Comet Lulin is expected to reach peak brightness around the time of closest approach, on February 24. On that date, it will lie approximately 0.41 AU from Earth and shine around 5th magnitude, which would be visible to the unaided eye from a dark site. But it may grow brighter than this, and the good news is it is already sporting a tail - two, to be precise.

The comet has both a tail and an "anti-tail," which is a trail of light leading away from the comet on the opposite side from the main tail. This unique tail/antitail comet will give it an appearance closer to a galaxy or a star with jets emanating from each side.
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http://stargazing.suite101.com/article.cfm/new_comet_lulin_easy_to_spot_this_winter

Ok now someone that can tell us if we will be able to see these constal. here in SA :)
 
Are they taking a shot in the dark and trying to be clever when they say what it's made of, i mean how would they know what it is made of? Maybe i being naive here but surely they cannot tell the make-up of something some 38 million miles away.
 
killadoob said:
Are they taking a shot in the dark and trying to be clever when they say what it's made of, i mean how would they know what it is made of? Maybe i being naive here but surely they cannot tell the make-up of something some 38 million miles away.
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It is fairly easy to know the composition of a planet by anaysing the variance / spectrum of light colours that it emits.
 
That comet should swing by my kitchen.. get rid of the roaches in a flash...
 
Tux nothing can rid of Roaches man, they are aliens and can survive a nuclear blast :p

All HAIL the amazing Roaches :p
 
Lulin is definitely visible over here and it is pretty easy to spot. Saw it last night in binos and my refractor. Looks like a fuzzy ball with bright core. Currently it's within 5-8 degrees of Spica. Visible in the E around 22:30. Comet is at mag 5 now so should be able to make it out naked eye under dark skies.
 
Anyone see it? I'm not sure if what I saw was this comet, but I really do think I saw it. However, it was around after 8 last night. This object was incredibly close and was moving very fast. Then it went behind and cloud and never returned :) We waited and waited and never saw it again. Then again, it could be those damn aliens thinking they're funny.
 
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