Skywatchers await comet
The comet is breaking apart. Image: European Southern
Observatory
Skywatchers in the Northern Hemisphere have a chance to see a comet fly by the Earth on 30 June.
The crumbling snowball should be visible in the morning sky with binoculars or even the naked eye. The place to look is just above and to the right of the brilliant planet Venus, a few hours before dawn.
The comet may flare, as it has in recent months, when it was seen from the Southern Hemisphere.
Comets are balls of ice and dust that did not get incorporated into planets when the Solar System was formed.
This particular comet, known as Linear A2, has already started to disintegrate.
It broke into two pieces earlier this spring. Later, one of the two chunks split apart and researchers say there may be many smaller pieces flying through space.
Virgin flight
The comet is making one of its first approaches to the Sun, perhaps even the first one.
It is therefore a "new" comet in which unaltered material from the formation of the Solar System some 4.5 billion years ago may still be present.
For this reason, the splitting of its nucleus is of particular interest to astronomers.
By spectroscopic observations, they may be able to learn more about the processes that took place at the time of the formation of the Solar System.
Jonathan Shanklin of the British Astronomical Association said the best time to see the comet was around 02:30 BST.
"Late night revellers going home after a party probably stand a fairly good chance of seeing it with a small pair of binoculars," he told BBC News Online.
"It could suddenly be visible with the naked eye or it could disappear completely."
The comet is slowly moving into the evening
sky, and there may be another opportunity to
see it on 10 July.
-- Anonymous, June 29, 2001