This year could be the "year of the comet," according to some astronomers keeping an eye on icy balls of gas and dust roaming through the solar system. Two comets will brighten the Northern Hemisphere in a potentially history-making fashion, with the first one coming into view this week.
"It has been 15 years-plus since Hale Bopp," Editor-in-chief of Astronomy Magazine David Eicher said of the last bright comet seen in the Northern Hemisphere. "We're overdue. We haven't had a really well-placed one in a long time."
For more fascinating information and awesome comet pictures follow this link to Wunderground.com.
Comets are hardly ever seen by the unaided eye so whenever such a rare occurrence takes place, people viewing one up in the sky are often prompted to ask, “What is a comet?”
A comet is a small, irregularly- shaped, icy body that circles the Sun in long, elliptical orbits, which come very close to the Sun, and then go back deep into space, sometimes way past Pluto’s orbit. A comet is made up of a solid nucleus or core, enclosed in a cloudy atmosphere called coma. Together, the two compose a comet’s head, while one or two tails develop as the comet draws nearer to the Sun.
I huge White light EXPLODED in the sky here in AZ this morning almost like a firework then turned into a rainbow. I have various pictures as this was one of the most AMAZING sights I have ever encountered here in the physical. Could this be a comet, ufo, divine intervention??? I have no idea. I do know it is out of the NORM so to speak.
