Added | Wed, 25/03/2020 |
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Дата публикации | Wed, 25/03/2020
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Hawaiian group of astronomers noted that in a few months people will be able to the naked eye to see the comet ATLAS, if it will not burn at perihelion.
The perihelion is the first closest to the Sun point towards the orbit of the cosmic body. For the first time the comet was seen on 28 December last year at the distance of 439 million km from our star.
Now the brightness level of the object is estimated at 20 magnitudes, which is very small (the human eye will not catch the light). However, on may 31, when the comet will fly past Earth, the value will increase to 9 magnitudes (the smaller it is, the brighter the object). Even during the day people will be able to see ATLAS.
The body can be destroyed by sunlight. Scientists can't say for sure if it will carry impact, because they do not know the chemical composition of the object.
The last time the comet such as ATLAS flew over the Northern hemisphere 13 years ago. Then the experts talked about bodies Hyakutake and Hale-BOPP.
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No one knows how big can be an icy comet nucleus ATLAS (C / 2019 Y4). It may not exceed the diameter of several kilometers. One thing is certain: its huge coma.
This photo, taken from Hisaishi Kato Uchiyama, Nagano Prefecture, Japan, shows that it is almost the same size as the full Moon.
"The comet is bigger and brighter than three days ago, says Kato. — Green coma of a celestial body has a diameter of about 20 arc minutes". For comparison, the figure for the moon is 30 arc minutes.
Knowing this and the distance from earth to the comet (1.1 a. E.), we can calculate the physical size of the cosmic body. Its length is about one million kilometers!
In fact, it is a huge ball of gas. If the comet ATLAS will ever become visible to the naked eye, it can be a really impressive sight.
Translated by «Yandex.Translator»
Hisayoshi Kato
Translated by «Yandex.Translator»
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