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You might want to keep your telescope or binoculars nearby on Monday, as a beautiful green comet is about to see us with its bright presence and early morning, reports Space.
Known as Comet 21P / Giacobini-Zinner, 21P, the celestial body is slowly moving towards Earth, preparing for a great meeting on September 10th.
While the comet is periodic, moving in our corner of the country once every 6.6 years in its journey around the sun, next week's visit is very important, note CNET.
This is because Monday's meeting will be the closest approach to our planet in the last 72 years.
This year, Comet 21P will move to less than 58.6 million kilometers (36.4 million miles) of Earth – "relatively close" to a comet, said astronomer of states and NASA ambassador Eddie Irizarry.
The same distance is also the closest possible between the Earth and Mars. In fact, it's exactly how far the two planets have met in recent weeks, since Mars approached Earth at the end of July, the closest in 15 years, as reported by the report. Inquisitr.
The video below, uploaded to YouTube by Pablo Lewin Productions, LLC, shows Comet 21P seen through a telescope on July 18 – a prelude to what can be expected next week.
Twice as wide as Jupiter
There are two things you need to know about Comet 21P: it's pretty bright and pretty huge.
According to Irizarry, the nucleus of the comet is only about a kilometer wide (or about two kilometers). However, Comet 21P is enveloped in a massive coma, also called cometary atmosphere, powered by the heating core.
The closer the comet gets to the sun, the warmer its heart is and releases gases that envelop its entire body. This gaseous coma is currently estimated at about 290,000 km in diameter, making it twice as wide as Jupiter, says Irizarry.
The last time we saw a green comet of this size, it was in early August, when PANSTARRS C / 2017 S3 came over twice as close to Earth – close enough to be spotted with the naked eye, the Inquisitr reported at the time.
Meanwhile, Comet 21P seems to shine more than a bright green hue and will only be visible through a telescope or a pair of solid binoculars, notes Irizarry.
"Some images show coma as a green color, indicating that the comet has cyanogen and diatomic carbon, gases that glow green when illuminated by sunlight," he wrote. EarthSky.
Comet 21P / Giacobini-Zinner photographed on August 18 from Moscow in Russia.
Alexandre Vasenin
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Wikimedia Commons / Rezised
Comet 21P will reach perihelion (or the nearest point of the sun in its highly elliptical orbit) early on Monday morning, around 2:40 pm EDT (6:40 GMT). That's when it will shine brightest and offer the best viewing opportunity.
When it finally passes, the comet "should reach a visual magnitude of 6.5 to 7", which means that "this will not be visible to the eye … but almost," says Irizarry.
To have a glimpse of the bright green comet, point your gaze to the east on Auriga's modern constellation, the Capella homeland, the goat's star, after midnight and before dawn. Space.
One thing is certain, that you will not want to miss the chance to have a look at Comet 21P on Monday. If you do, you will have to wait another 40 years for another approach, because the next time this celestial body will be installed on Earth will be September 18, 2058.
A shower of meteors to start
Another interesting thing about Comet 21P is that it is the source of the Draconid meteor shower, an annual celestial display named after the Draco constellation ("the Dragon") from where it seems to radiate .
While a fairly modest meteor shower, the Draconids can still justify a pleasant evening under the dark sky. According to Bill Cooke, a meteorite scientist at NASA, observers can expect to see about five to eight shooting stars during the Draconid meteorite rain spike, which takes place this year on Oct. 9. Space.
That's one more reason to keep your eyes on Comet 21P next week.
"It could be the closest thing to a real dragon in the night sky, and you can catch his flight with a pair of binoculars," note CNET.
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