The Catalina comet will be visible to the naked eye from Earth in the coming days, but just this once because then leave the solar system and spend the rest of his days traveling through interstellar space.
Catalina (C / 2013 US10), discovered on October 31, 2013, comes from the Oort Cloud, a vast reservoir of comets that exist in the outer solar system, a light-year away from the sun.
"The solar system has two parts, the inner housing and the outer planets, where the Oort Cloud is," he told Efe the Spanish astronomer Miquel Serra-Ricart.
The Oort comets are coming from rocks of ice and dust that slowly roam this spherical cloud until something, "as the passage of a star or a collision between them," destabilizing its orbit and allows the sun to draw them inside the Solar System.
Catherine is very interesting from an astronomical point of view, as this is the only time we'll have to study it "bringing such a high speed that the sun can not catch it, but will have a hyperbolic fall that will leave the solar system and wander through interstellar space, "said Serra-Ricart.
The comet passed closest to the Sun (perihelion) on November 15 point, 123 million kilometers from the star and, according to calculations, the moment of closest approach to Earth will be on January 17, when it will 108 million kilometers from us.
Catalina will be thoroughly studied by scientists with the help of ground-based telescopes will try to get "as much information as possible about their dynamic state, its rotation, its spectral composition, etc," the Spanish astronomer.
Overall, comets are important because they are fossils of the formation of the solar system and contain information on the origin of planetary systems.
Moreover, if the comet comes from the Oort cloud, as in this case, the scientific interest is even greater because "come from a primordial cloud of the solar system and have information about their origin," said Serra-Ricart.
Although this comet will be visible until mid-February, the best time for observation will be next week.
"In fact, you can already see, but it will be much more visible as disappear the moon, the next 9, 10 and 11 January, and the 16th, when will place its perigee (closest point to Earth)", said the scientist.
To observe it, "the most important thing is to know where it is. You must use the sky chart, place it. At first glance, if it is too dark you will see a green spot, because its nucleus is greenish, and with binoculars you can see some small detail, like his two tails (an ion or gas and other dust) ", concludes and astronomer . EFE