Published 09:31 IST, July 8th 2020
Comet Neowise dazzles as International Space Station spots it over Mediterranean sea
Comet Neowise, the third comet discovered in 2020, was pictured from the station on July 5 as it orbited above the Mediterranean Sea
The International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday captured a stunning image of the newly discovered comet C/2020 F3 Neowise. Comet Neowise, the third comet discovered in 2020, was pictured from the station on July 5 as it orbited above the Mediterranean Sea. ISS tweeted the images of the bright comet captioning it as, "When you wish upon a falling star....'
Earlier on July 4, NASA astronaut Bob Behnken said that the team has set the camera at the ISS to automatically take shots every few seconds during their spacewalk. During this, their device managed to capture Neowise in all its glory more than 138 million miles from Earth.
Netizens fascinated
Comet Neowise
The NEOWISE comet has been an intriguing site for several wanderers of the sky. It was first discovered on March 27, 2020, using a NEOWISE (Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) space telescope. After its discovery, it was listed as C/2020 F3 which was located 312 million kilometres (194 million miles) from the sun.
At a very faint magnitude of +17, it is considered to be 25,000 times fainter than the faintest star that can be glimpsed with the naked eye. One can only see this comet using large telescopes. However, July marks the change in the expectations of many astronomers as the Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE might become a glowing object for skywatchers. This is the first time in this year that a comet has raised such hopes after two previous comets, ATLAS and SWAN, fizzled out earlier this year.
Updated 09:31 IST, July 8th 2020