Comet NEOWISE

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Comet NEOWISE, or C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE), photographed on 20 July 2020. Comets are collections of dust and ice that orbit the Sun. Both a dust tail (white) and ion tail (blue) are visible. This comet was discovered on 27th March 2020 by astronomers using the NEOWISE (Wide-Field Infrared Explorer) space telescope. It was one of the brightest comets since comet Hale-Bopp in 1997, and could be seen with the naked eye throughout July 2020. It orbits the sun very slowly however, only around once every 6800 years.

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Size: 3610px × 2421px
Location:
Photo credit: © DAMIAN PEACH/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: -, /2020, 20, 2000s, 2020, 2020s, 21st, astronomical, astronomy, banding, bands, century, coma, comet, cometary, dust, earth, europe, european, f3, ion, july, neowise, night, observation, orbiting, outgassing, sky, space, starry, stars, striae, tail, text