Posted on Sunday, March 02, 2014
The resurrected Wise mission, now named NEOWISE found it's first comet on February 14th, 2014.
The comet is slightly peculiar, as it is in a retrograde orbit - it's movement is in the other direction compared to other objects in the solar system. The comet is in a very eccentric orbit with a twenty-year orbit around the Sun.
NEOWISE is on the lookout for Near-Earth Objects and this far it's spotted some asteroids. The comet isn't really a near-Earth object, as it doesn't get close enough to the Earth's orbit.
Infrared image of comet NEOWISE (C/2014 C3). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The comet is slightly peculiar, as it is in a retrograde orbit - it's movement is in the other direction compared to other objects in the solar system. The comet is in a very eccentric orbit with a twenty-year orbit around the Sun.
NEOWISE is on the lookout for Near-Earth Objects and this far it's spotted some asteroids. The comet isn't really a near-Earth object, as it doesn't get close enough to the Earth's orbit.
Infrared image of comet NEOWISE (C/2014 C3). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech