Earth Approaches An Ancient Very Unusual Comet With A Razor Thin Trail Not Tail!

[00:00:01][music] >> James Kaufmann World News report today.

[00:00:08]Earth approaches an ancient very unusual comet with a razor-thin trail, not tail.

[00:00:17]Earth is approaching the orbital plane of an ancient comet with an unusual appearance.

[00:00:24]Known as comet 10P Tempel, the comet is bisected by a razor-thin layer of dust, making it look a bit like Saturn with edge-on rings.

[00:00:37]Chris Schur photographed 10P this week from Happy Jack, Arizona.

[00:00:43]The comet is exhibiting the most obvious dust trail that Schur has ever seen in his 50 years of imaging.

[00:00:53]The distinction, trail versus tail, the structure Schur's photograph is a trail, a pancake of gravel-sized debris that has settled into the comet's orbit over hundreds to thousands of years.

[00:01:13]This differs from a tail, which is a young spray of fresh gas and dust in many directions.

[00:01:20]In other words, this comet has traveled right through this exact orbit so many times, it has created this trail throughout the orbit.

[00:01:35]This is not a tail.

[00:01:39]Again, this trail could be hundreds to thousands of years old.

[00:01:45]And again, it differs because a tail is young spray of fresh gas and dust in many directions. Comet 10P's pancake trail was discovered by NASA's infrared astronomical satellite IRAS in 1983, one of the first ever found.

[00:02:06]Catching it with a backyard telescope is a rare feat.

[00:02:11]This weekend is prime time to try, even with a small inexpensive telescope.

[00:02:18]Between July 18th and July 22nd, Earth crosses 10P's orbital plane.

[00:02:26]As the crossing occurs, the trail will sharpen to a maximum thinness and surface brightness. Later, the trail will pivot and fan back to open.

[00:02:40]Long exposure photographs taken days apart may show notable changes.

[00:02:48]The comet is currently a magnitude 8.4 object in the constellation Capricorn, seen here. It will brighten to a 7.7, if not brighter, magnitude by the month's end. It will be closest to Earth on August 3rd, but now is the best time to look while the gravel trail is edge-on.

[00:03:15]Small telescopes will show the green coma with ease, while deep sky exposures will be needed to catch the gravel trail.

[00:03:26]God bless, folks.

[00:03:28]World of wonders is all one can say.

[00:03:32]Please give us a thumbs up and share, and always remember anything is possible in a bizarro world.