Discovered by the the Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) project in October of 2002, comet C/2002 T7 [
http://antwrp.gsfc.… ] is now visiting the inner solar system, making its closest approach (see animation by L. Koehn [ mailto:zeromagnitude@aol.com ]) to the Sun tomorrow, April 23rd. Emerging from the solar glare, the comet is [
http://www.nineplan… ] now just visible to the unaided eye in the constellation Pisces, near the eastern horizon in morning twilight. In this gorgeous telescopic view [
http://www.noao.edu… c-2002t7.html ] recorded before dawn yesterday, the clearly active comet has developed an extensive, complex tail extending [
http://antwrp.gsfc.… ] over 2 degrees in the anti-sunward direction, and a pronounced anti-tail [
http://encke.jpl.na… ] or anomalous tail. Later next month this comet should appear brighter, making its closest approach to planet Earth on May 19th. In fact, it could share southern skies [
http://skyandtelesc… article_1037_1.asp ] with another naked-eye comet, also anticipated to brighten in May, designated C/2001 Q4 (NEAT).
explanation
Discovered by the the Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) project in October of 2002, comet C/2002 T7 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040209.html ] is now visiting the inner solar system, making its closest approach (see animation by L. Koehn [ mailto:zeromagnitude@aol.com ]) to the Sun tomorrow, April 23rd. Emerging from the solar glare, the comet is [ http://www.nineplanets.org/comets.html ] now just visible to the unaided eye in the constellation Pisces, near the eastern horizon in morning twilight. In this gorgeous telescopic view [ http://www.noao.edu/outreach/aop/observers/ c-2002t7.html ] recorded before dawn yesterday, the clearly active comet has developed an extensive, complex tail extending [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000413.html ] over 2 degrees in the anti-sunward direction, and a pronounced anti-tail [ http://encke.jpl.nasa.gov/define.html ] or anomalous tail. Later next month this comet should appear brighter, making its closest approach to planet Earth on May 19th. In fact, it could share southern skies [ http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/comets/ article_1037_1.asp ] with another naked-eye comet, also anticipated to brighten in May, designated C/2001 Q4 (NEAT).
Explanation
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