A Christmas comet is coming with its spectacular shiny tail, two times larger than the Moon!
The Christmas comet will make the atmosphere of the holidays even more magical. If you thought you would only see it in the nativity, you are wrong. The comet is visible to the naked eye right now and you will be able to see it for the entire month of December.
The Christmas comet is called 46P/Wirtanen and its first photo was taken by the famous Rolando Ligustri of the Italian Amateur Astronomers Union. This spectacular comet is quickly approaching the Sun and will reach the perihelion, the point of maximum closeness to the Sun, exactly on December, 12. So get ready to lift your eyes up in the sky, to make the Christmas atmosphere even more magical.
Everything you need to know about the 46p/Wirtanen Christmas comet!
On December, 12 the comet will be very bright and visible to the naked eye. Its tail will have a trail of light twice the size of the Moon.
In order to see it, you need to stay in a very dark place, far from the city lights. Let’s hope the weather conditions are good!
The first picture was taken by Rolando Ligustri of the Italian Amateur Astronomers Union, on October 31. He used a robotic telescope and was located in the southern hemisphere of the Earth.
Ligustri explained: “At the moment, the comet is almost invisible from the northern hemisphere. It is now very low on the horizon, in the Furnax constellation“.
This is not the only show we can see in the sky this year, in fact, during summer there were many shooting stars and the aurora borealis. To better enjoy this phenomenon, you can go to Lapland and observe it from a glass igloo.
Photo source: https://www.facebook.com/rolando.ligustri
ultimo aggiornamento: 19-11-2018
