Comet SWAN Coming Near Earth – Burning Issues – Free PDF Download

DETAILS

• Comet SWAN and comet Atlas will be flying closest to the surface of Earth on May 13 and May 23, 2020, respectively.
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NOTES

• Comet Swan was actually spotted first by an amateur astronomer named Michael Mattiazzo who was looking at the data from NASA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory i.e SOHO.
• The comet first made an appearance in images clocked by SOHO’s Solar Wind Anisotropies Instrument on April 11, 2020, and was thus named comet SWAN.

WHAT IS COMET SWAN MADE OF?

• Most comets have a composition of ice and rock, with ice making up for the largest percentage.
• As the body approaches the Sun, the ice warms and melts to produce a ‘coma’, a fuzzy envelope of gas, with a tail being produced as materials in the comet vaporize and stream out in its wake. In the case of Comet Swan, a green glowing coma, and a blue-ion tail, all coloured due the various chemicals in the gases released.

WHERE DO COMETS COME FROM?

• Comets are believed to have two sources. Longperiod comets (those which take more than 200 years to complete an orbit around the Sun) originate from the Oort Cloud. Short-period comets (those which take less than 200 years to complete an orbit around the Sun) originate from the Kuiper Belt.

LONG-PERIOD COMET EXAMPLE – HYAKUTAKE

• Also known as the Great Comet of 1996, Hyakutake is another well-known comet. It was one of the closest comets to pass Earth for about 200 years.

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