Newly discovered comet moves closest to Earth tonight
The Comet NEOWISE will be the closest to the Earth for the first time in more than 6,000 years tonight (July 23), the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT) said.
An official from NARIT explained that the comet had moved closer to the Earth since the beginning of July, but it was hard to spot as it was only visible before sunrise.
“Tonight will be the best time to observe this comet because it will have moved closest to the Earth and its magnitude is expected to be approximately five times,” he said. “If the sky is clear, the comet will be visible to the naked eye in the Northwest after sunset.”
The official added that this was a good chance for Thai people to observe the comet because it will start becoming smaller in the sky after today.
C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) or Comet NEOWISE was discovered on March 27 this year by astronomers during the NEOWISE mission of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) space telescope. On July 3, the comet was 43 million kilometres away from Sun and will be 103 million kilometres away from Earth on July 23.
