Don't Miss This Comet That Will Light Up the Sky on New Year's Eve
Stargazing and astronomy enthusiasts have another reason to get excited for New Year's Eve -- a comet that will be visible right next to the moon to anyone looking west.
The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory took to social media to inform the world that a comet will be viewable from Earth, through binoculars, as people welcome in 2017 on Saturday night.
"Say farewell to 2016 in cosmic style by looking up to see the #NewYearsEve #comet on December 31," the laboratory said in a Wednesday Instagram post.
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The comet in question is the 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova, named so after the astronomers who discovered it in 1948. NASA says that it's a periodic comet that makes its way to the inner solar system every 5.25 years.
Comet 45P was first visible this year in the low western horizon on December 15 after its last appearance in September 2011. It will be viewable once again to everyone in the Northern Hemisphere on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.
Dr. David Reitzel, an astronomical lecturer at Griffith Observatory in California, said that the comet would be visible using a telescope or strong binoculars, reports USA Today.
People will be able to catch a glimpse of Comet 45P by pointing their instruments to the west just after sunset and focusing on the left of the crescent moon.
The comet will orbit around the Sun on January 1 and disappear from visibility from Earth. Its maximum brightness will be about magnitude 6 -- the equivalent of looking at a faint star with the naked eye.
Comets, earlier seen as harbingers of doom by ancient civilizations, will be frequenting Earth's vicinity more often in 2017 than they did this year. They will be accompanied by appearances of other cosmic events like meteor showers.
There are going to be 11 meteor showers observable from Earth next year. Two of them, the Geminids and the Ursids, already began this month but will be better seen next year as the moon won't be bright enough to dampen visibility of the astrophysical events.
