Two Comets Will Fly Close To Earth In May And It¡¯s Going To Look Amazing

Space is mysterious, scary, but at the same time beautiful and truly mesmerizing. Space events are something humans often lookout for, whether it is eclipses, spotting planets or even Meteor Showers.

However, one space occurrence that, in my opinion, truly takes the cake is the mesmerizing coming and going of a comet.

NASA

And the month of May is lucky for people anticipating breathtaking space events, as this month we¡¯re seeing two comets make a really close flyby.

Spotting Comet Swan on May 13

Reported first by Space.com, the comet is named Swan and it was recently discovered on Apri 11l by an amateur astronomer Michael Mattiazzo while looking at data from NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). The comet made a sudden appearance in images from SOHO's Solar Wind ANisotropies instrument, aka "SWAN."(that¡¯s also how the comet got its name).

Apparently, SOHO¡¯s SWAN Instrument, that discovered the comet was actually designed to survey the solar system for hydrogen. However, since Comet Swan was exuding a considerable amount of hydrogen in the form of water ice, the SWAN instrument caught it. It is expected to fly really close to Earth on May 13.

Con Stoisis/Twitter

The comet even has a Twitter handle that tweets how far (or near) it is from Earth and in case someone wants to spot it, how can they do so.

It is expected to pass closest to Earth on May 13 at a distance of 83.3 million kilometres, and it will be at its closest point to the sun (called perihelion) on May 27, when it will be 64.4 million kilometres away from our star.

People to the South of Equator will get to spot Comet Swan. Sadly, India is to the North of the equator, so we might not get to spot it with our naked eye.

We were supposed to see another comet on May 23 but...

This month Earth was supposed to witness another ginormous and bright comet to flyby close -- Comet Atlas (or Comet C/2019 Y4 ATLAS) on May 23. Atlas was first discovered during the end of last year and it was really bright. May predicted this to be a beautiful celestial showpiece to attract layman and astronomers alike.

Alas, the comet recently disintegrated and shattered last month, on April 11 -- the same day Comet Swan was discovered. This occurrence might seem sad and unusual, but it isn¡¯t. Comets are known to be of an unpredictable nature.

Gianluca Masi

Some suggested the comet would shine brighter than Venus. Some had even claimed that it will shine brighter than the moon. However, in the end, it¡¯s nowhere close to that. It hasn¡¯t fully disappeared yet, it is still shining, but not as bright as before.

Yet we are glad we have Comet Swan to entertain and mesmerise us, only if it doesn¡¯t decide to disintegrate on its journey.