The 'Comet of the Century' Just Grew a Rare Anti-Tail
The 'Comet of the Century' Just Grew a Rare Anti-Tail
The phenomenon, known as an anti-tail, is an optical illusion caused by the Earth's position in the comet's orbital plane.
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Can anyone explain how this is the comet of the century?
Halley's comet happens every century. That's the baseline.
From the article:
According to EarthSky, this comet (known colloquially as Comet A3, for obvious reasons) is special, as it’s the brightest to cross our planet’s sky in 27 years, leading some to dub it the Comet of the Century.
Huh, I'm pretty sure neowise had a lower magnitude. I was in a city at the time and could see it through the light pollution at night with the naked eye. This one disappears quickly in the dark after the sunset goes towards astronomical dusk... And the moon light is also making it impossible to see. Maybe looks brighter at sunset in specific parts of the world, but at least my experience in its glory was nothing like Neowise.
Also earthsky claims magnitude -5 to -7. I don't believe that. For context, the magnitude of Venus is about -4 and that planet outshined the comet greatly.
Agree. Could see neowise with the naked eye.
Maybe it's just the location of the comet in relation to the sun?
This one is like washed out until right after sunset and then it's gone past the horizon a few minutes later.
Looks like A3 is only visible once every 80,000 years due to its orbit. Earth will look very different by the time of returns!