nemesis maturity
Yesterday, the Hubble Space Telescope published images, which appear to show Comet Atlas breaking apart into more than two dozen fragments. So it seems that Comet Atlas is no more. Comet Atlas is no more but Comet Swan appears ready to takeover the title of “best naked eye comet in years.” Great News for Southern Hemisphere Skywatchers. Comet SWAN (C/2020 F8) is Now a naked-eye object. According to spaceweather.com , Comet SWAN is brightening rapidly. Indeed, multiple observers have now pegged the comet at magnitude +5.5, just within the range of naked-eye visibility. At the moment, the comet is little more than a dim fuzzball to the human eye. The view through a telescope, however, is stunning. https://spaceweather.com/ The comet's tail is very long. It is actually stretches about 8 degrees across the sky. For comparison, the bowl of the Big Dipper is 10 degrees wide. Comet SWAN (C/2020 F8) is Fast Approaching Earth's Orbit. Comet SWAN will make its closest approach to Earth on May 12th at a distance of 0.56 AU. That's not very close, but it could be a good show anyway. If current trends continue, the comet will brighten to 3rd magnitude or better, similar to the stars of the Pleiades. Observers in the southern hemisphere will have little trouble seeing it as it glides through the constellation Pisces. Much about Comet SWAN remains unknown. It was discovered only a few weeks ago, on April 11th, when a sudden hydrogen dump by the comet made it show up in data from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory's SWAN instrument. Comet SWAN's hyperbolic orbit suggests that it might be a first-time visitor to the inner solar system. Such newcomers are notoriously unpredictable, so no one can say for sure what will happen next.