Latest news with #Hale-Bopp
San Francisco Chronicle
21-04-2025
- Science
- San Francisco Chronicle
A green comet likely is breaking apart and won't be visible to the naked eye
NEW YORK (AP) — A newly discovered green comet tracked by telescopes has likely broken apart as it swung by the sun, dashing hopes of a naked-eye spectacle. Comet SWAN, hailing from the Oort Cloud beyond Pluto, has been visible through telescopes and binoculars over the past few weeks with its streaming tail, but experts said it may not have survived its recent trip past the sun and is fading fast. 'We'll soon be left with just a dusty rubble pile,' astrophysicist Karl Battams with the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory said in an email. Comets are balls of frozen gas and dust from billions of years ago. Every so often, a comet passes through the inner solar system. 'These are relics from when the solar system first formed,' said Jason Ybarra, director of the West Virginia University Planetarium and Observatory. The newest comet was discovered by amateur astronomers, who spied it in photos taken by a camera on a spacecraft operated by NASA and the European Space Agency to study the sun. The comet won't swing close to Earth like Tsuchinshan-Atlas did last year. Other notable flybys included Neowise in 2020 and Hale-Bopp and Hyakutake in the 1990s. The comet, also designated C/2025 F2, would have been visible just after dark slightly north of where the sun set. Its green color would have been difficult to see with the naked eye. This might have been the object's first ever trip past the sun, making it particularly vulnerable to breaking apart, Battams said. After its flyby, what's left of the comet will disappear into the outer reaches of the solar system, past where scientists think it came from. 'It's going to go so far out that we have no idea if it's ever going to return,' said Battams. ___
Associated Press
21-04-2025
- Science
- Associated Press
A green comet likely is breaking apart and won't be visible to the naked eye
NEW YORK (AP) — A newly discovered green comet tracked by telescopes has likely broken apart as it swung by the sun, dashing hopes of a naked-eye spectacle. Comet SWAN, hailing from the Oort Cloud beyond Pluto, has been visible through telescopes and binoculars over the past few weeks with its streaming tail, but experts said it may not have survived its recent trip past the sun and is fading fast. 'We'll soon be left with just a dusty rubble pile,' astrophysicist Karl Battams with the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory said in an email. Comets are balls of frozen gas and dust from billions of years ago. Every so often, a comet passes through the inner solar system. 'These are relics from when the solar system first formed,' said Jason Ybarra, director of the West Virginia University Planetarium and Observatory. The newest comet was discovered by amateur astronomers, who spied it in photos taken by a camera on a spacecraft operated by NASA and the European Space Agency to study the sun. The comet won't swing close to Earth like Tsuchinshan-Atlas did last year. Other notable flybys included Neowise in 2020 and Hale-Bopp and Hyakutake in the 1990s. The comet, also designated C/2025 F2, would have been visible just after dark slightly north of where the sun set. Its green color would have been difficult to see with the naked eye. This might have been the object's first ever trip past the sun, making it particularly vulnerable to breaking apart, Battams said. After its flyby, what's left of the comet will disappear into the outer reaches of the solar system, past where scientists think it came from. 'It's going to go so far out that we have no idea if it's ever going to return,' said Battams. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Partial solar eclipse to be visible in skies across France on Saturday
A partial solar eclipse will take place this Saturday, with the Moon crossing in front of the Sun for approximately four hours. The celestial event will be visible across parts of the Northern Hemisphere, including France. Across France, between 10 and 30 percent of the Sun will be covered by the Moon on Saturday morning, with northern regions getting slightly greater coverage than those further south. However, the effect will be subtle, and without protective eyewear the difference may not be immediately noticeable to the naked eye, according to the Paris Observatory. The eclipse will begin at 8:50am UT – 9:50am in France – and conclude at 12:43 UT with the peak of the eclipse occurring at 10:47 UT, with visibility varying depending on location. It will be visible across much of Europe, as well as parts of northeastern North America and northwest Africa. Posting on Bluesky, the observatory stressed: "Be careful not to look directly at the Sun without suitable protection!" Onlookers stunned as flaming meteor streaks across skies of Brittany A partial solar eclipse occurs when the Sun, Moon and Earth align in such a way that the Moon partially obscures the Sun. In contrast, a total solar eclipse, where the Sun is completely covered, results in a brief period of twilight. Read more on RFI EnglishRead also:Scientists' anxious wait to celebrate solar probe's moment in the sunMove over Hale-Bopp: Once in 50,000-year comet may be visible to naked eyeBubble of hot gas discovered spinning around Milky Way black hole
