NEOWISE Comet: One of the Brightest Comets

• The recently discovered comet called C/2020 F3, also known as NEOWISE after the NASA telescope that discovered it, will make its closest approach to the Earth on July 22,2020.

Comets

• Comets or “dirty snowballs” are mostly made of dust, rocks and ice, the remnants from the time the solar system was formed over 4.6 billion years ago. In the distant past, people thought of comets as “long-haired” stars that would appear unpredictably in the sky.
• As they orbit closer to the sun, like in the case of C/2020 F3, they heat up and release debris of dust and gases that forms ....