Watch a Comet Fly Away Like the Dinosaurs Wish They Could
- Jul 21, 2020
- Blog Post
Through the end of July, we have a rare opportunity to watch a massive comet miss our planet(sorry Dinosaurs!) and put on a beautiful show in the process. The comet, C/2020 F3, was first discovered by the NEOWISE space telescope on March 27.
As you read this, this five-kilometer hunk of ice and carbon is creating a dazzling, nightly display across the Northern Hemisphere for astronomers and casual stargazers alike. C/2020 F3 will get progressively brighter and higher in the sky until NEOWISE makes its closest approach on the night of July 23. Get out there and take a look: if you miss it, you'll have to wait a cool 6,800 years to see it again.
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Luckily, STK is here to make sure that doesn’t happen! With the JPL Horizons Interface Plugin and STK, you can visualize the flight of C/2020 F3 through our solar system for yourself.
Check out our knowledge article about the plugin (https://analyticalgraphics.my.salesforce-sites.com/faqs/articles/HowTo/get-and-load-asteroid-ephemeris) to learn how to load ephemeris data straight from the JPL Horizons Tool into STK. C/2020 F3 Orbit and Location – 07/17/20 To demonstrate how to do this, I loaded the comet’s ephemeris into STK and then added an umbra lighting constraint and a direct sunlight constraint to my place object and comet, respectively. This will ensure that I get the best possible visibility of the comet.
Finally, I added a five-degree minimum elevation angle constraint on my place object to ensure that I can see the comet over nearby hills. Once I computed access between my place (AGI Headquarters) and the comet, I was able to determine my best viewing window from an Azimuth-Elevation-Range(AER) report. The result: at 8:20 EST on July 23, my best viewing window will begin and I’ll be able to see the comet a full 37 degrees above the horizon!
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Get out there and look to the heavens!