![]() That’s 16 times farther away than the Earth is from the sun. At its discovery, K2 was 1.49 billion miles (2.4 billion km) from the sun. Pan-STARRS is a sky survey that is particularly good at spotting new asteroids, comets, supernovae and the like. If the name Comet PanSTARRS rings a bell, that’s because there are many of them. | Artist’s concept of the orbit of Comet C/2017 K2 (PanSTARRS), on its maiden voyage into the inner part of our solar system. The comet appears to have a large nucleus, and it shows a huge cometary atmosphere or coma. The Hubble Space Telescope took an image of the comet looking like a fuzzy snowball while it was still in the outer solar system. However, this comet was already active in 2017. They become active when warmed by the sun. The comet will be closest to the sun on December 19, 2022.Ĭomets are mostly rock and ice. It made its closest approach to Earth on July 14. It was located between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus when they first saw it. At the time, they said it was the farthest active inbound comet they’d yet seen. Hopefully the best is yet to come.” Thank you, Eliot! The comet’s backstoryĪstronomers first spotted the comet in 2017 using the Pan-STARRS survey instrument in Hawaii. The image shows the comet with a background of interstellar gas, providing variations of color to frame the comet. At the time of the image, the comet was 172 million miles (277 million km) from Earth. Eliot wrote: “Comet 2017 K2 is already presenting a striking image months from its predicted maximum brightness. | Eliot Herman, using an iTelescope in Siding Springs, Australia, captured this image of comet PanSTARRS on July 30, 2022. That coma is about 80,700 miles (129,900 km), which is 10 times the Earth’s diameter! You might also see the comet’s tail, while long-exposure images should reveal the comet and its tail in all its glory.Īstronomers estimate that Comet C/2017 K2 (PanSTARRS) has been traveling from the Oort cloud for some 3 million years in a hyperbolic orbit. The fuzziness is mostly the comet’s gigantic outer atmosphere, or coma. You should see comet K2 as a fuzzy patch of light. If it continues to brighten, you may nab it using binoculars alone. Then, use a small telescope to track down the comet. So, how to see it? First, you’ll want to be under southern skies. After Lupus, the comet will zip against the background of stars in Ara and Pavo. You can find star maps there that locate it as it shifts among the constellations. The website The Sky Live will help you spot the comet. Observers in the south should keep an eye out for the comet to brighten and the tail to lengthen as it gets closer to the sun. He reported that the comet has a magnitude of 8.7. Stephen James O’Meara shared his image of the comet (above) from Botswana, at latitude 20 degrees South, on September 21, 2022. The comet has dropped south out of Scorpius, headed into Lupus and constellations that are accessible to Southern Hemisphere observers. Now it’s heading toward perihelion – its closest point to the sun – on December 19, 2022. The bright star at top is 4th-magnitude Rho Scorpii.” Thank you, Stephen! Comet C/2017 K2 (PanSTARRS)Ĭomet C/2017 K2 (PanSTARRS) made its closest approach to Earth on July 14, 2022, when it was in northern skies. The tail should appear longer as the comet nears the sun in the coming months, and the Earth-comet geometry gradually becomes more broadside but anything can happen with comets. The negative image brings out the comet’s tail, which is becoming slightly more visible through small apertures. It’s a cropped image of a guided 200-mm lens (EFL 320-mm) field. Stephen said: “For those at mid-northern latitudes who might be interested in seeing how Comet 2017 K2 (PanSTARRS) is holding up in the southern skies, the image here shows the comet on September 21, holding steady at magnitude 8.7. | Legendary astronomer Stephen James O’Meara in Maun, Botswana, took these images on September 21, 2022.
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