- Carl Crum ’24
Bright comets are fairly rare solar system objects which used to be interpreted as omens in ancient times. Comet Neowise appeared last summer and was most visible in the early morning and right after sunset. A comet consists of three main parts: a nucleus, a coma, and a tail. The bright point at the front of the comet is the nucleus, which is surrounded by the coma. When Neowise was first spotted, its coma and tail had a yellow-white tint. However, as the weeks progressed, the color of the comet changed to a vibrant green as the nucleus’ outer dust and ice layers burned off. I took the left-hand photo on the morning of July 8, and shot the right-hand photo on the evening of July 20. To shoot the comet from my house, I had to climb on top of my roof!
Fun Facts:
- It’s nucleus contains about 13 million Olympic-sized swimming pools of water
- The closest Neowise came to Earth was 64 million miles away
- The nucleus is over 3 miles in diameter
- Neowise will be seen again in 6,800 years
