BROKEN COMET: 73P disintegrated

Comets are the snow-birds of the solar system; living most of their lives in the dark outer reaches then taking a notion, due to a variety of gravitational influences, to visit the warmer climes near the Sun, which they also eccentrically orbit. In the process of drawing near the inner solar system, they let their hair down to blow in the solar wind (the word comet means "hairy star" in many languishes) like many pleasure-seeking tourists. In the past, they were regarded as harbingers of misfortune and, in fact, our word "disaster" comes from the ancient belief in the calamitous influence of evil ("dis") stars ("astra"). Until slightly more than one hundred years ago, mankind lit their nights by burning wax, oils and gases so that the sky was very black after sunset except, as today, in large cities. Therefore, comets that suddenly erupted in the heavens appeared much more dazzling than they do now - beautiful, mysterious and, to some, terrifying!

More than 10 years ago, Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 unexpectedly split apart into 3 separate pieces. Now these cometary fragments are going to fly past the Earth, and astronomers will get a closer view than they've had in 20 years - back when the fragments were a single object. The fragments will get relatively close, passing within 10 million km (6 million miles), but they won't get very bright, unfortunately. It'll take dark skies and binoculars to see much more than a blurry smudge in the sky. Recently, the comet had ejected a new fragment just a few days ago, and now this fragment has broken into multiple pieces too. Astronomers aren't sure just how many pieces the comet will eventually break into.

UNIVERSE TODAY

Comments

[MyKeL]

watch out for periodic comet this coming may 22 daw. i heard it from the news awhile ago. hehehe.

[adHarA]

mao ni siya nga comet myk.. nabungkag man ni siya. almost to a hundred pieces and increasing. bitaw? did it say nga mkita siya with the naked eye? sa ako nahibaw-an kay, 2-3 iya magnitude..