Recently, an amateur astronomer from The city of Kakegawa in Japan discovered a comet which is approaching the Sun and can be observed with the naked eye next month.
baptized as Nishimura (C/2023 P1)the object was discovered by the amateur astrophotographer Hideo Nishimura on August 11.
He has certain What this comet is not periodic, i.e. it comes from the confines of the solar system, probably from oort cloud, and its journey takes thousands of years. This may be your first foray into our cosmic neighborhood.
For now, the Comet Nishimura it passes close to the Earth’s orbit around the Sun and moves so fast that it will reach the orbit of Venus at the end of August. Then he On September 18, it will reach its perihelion (closest approach to the star) only 32 million kilometers away, almost half the distance between Mercury and the king of stars.
Although a comet’s trajectory can be unpredictable, Nishimura is expected to remain intact as it approaches our star and become a naked-eye celestial body in mid-September.
However, keep in mind that being so close to the Sun, the comet’s structure (ice, dust and rock) could collapse.
Right now, the comet can be observed with telescopes 6 inches or larger in the eastern constellation Gemini before dawn. Its magnitude is 10 (the lower the number, the brighter it is).
In the last week of August, it will be in Cancer and, at the beginning of September, in Leo, with a magnitude less than 7, therefore visible with binoculars.
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Its closest approach to Earth, at 43 million km, will be on September 13. If by then it continues to survive the heat of the Sun, comet C/2023 P1 will have a magnitude of 4.3, a brightness that would make it observable with the naked eye.
References: The Republic / Space.
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