Rapidly Brightening Comet 252P/LINEAR to pass near Earth – #JHedzWorlD

Rapidly Brightening Comet 252P/LINEAR to pass near Earth

March 16, 2016; 4:20 PM ET

Picture of Comet 252P/LINEAR courtesy of Michael Mattiazzo, taken from Victoria, Australia on March 13th. Image is via spaceweather.com

Comet 252P/LINEAR has brightened significantly over the last week.

So far, this comet has been visible exclusively in the southern hemisphere. But, that will change eventually.

This comet is unusual in the fact that it will pass very close to earth. On March 21/22 it will pass 3.2 million miles from earth, or a lunar distance of about 14. This has been reported to be the 5th closest known pass by a comet, EVER.

graphic showing how the orbit of comet 252P/LINEAR and Earth will come close to crossing. Graphic is courtesy of NASA JPL

This may well be visible to the naked eye in the southern hemisphere soon. The comet has most recently been reported to have a magnitude of 6. This is on the cusp of being visible to the naked eye.

This graph shows a plot of recent magnitude observations of the comet, dating back to the middle of February. The green line shows the predicted magnitude. You can see it has been well above the prediction over the past week. This graphic is courtesy of Comet Base

The path of the comet will be very close to that of Earth’s orbit. So, it’s not out of the question that this comet leaves some debris in its wake, and we have a meteor shower. This is highly uncertain, but a very interesting possibility.

The comet will start to become visible to the northern Hemisphere around March 21. It will rise higher in the northern sky through April. Graphic is courtesy of Sky and Telescope. Read the Sky and Telescope article here

The comet is basically as close to the sun as it will get. So, it is unclear how much more it can brighten. But, we will keep our fingers crossed that it stays bright into April, so everyone on the globe can get a glimpse of the comet!

Thanks for reading, and just look up! You never know what you are going to see.

The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of AccuWeather, Inc. or AccuWeather.com

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Rapidly Brightening Comet 252P/LINEAR to pass near Earth – #JHedzWorlD