Comet Nishimura

Environmental & Science Education, STEM, Astronomy, Astrophysics, Earth & Space Science, Solar System, Cosmology

Ed Hessler

--Watch the skies. Everywhere. Keep looking. Keep watching the skies.-- Reporter Ned "Scotty" Scott, played by Douglas Spencer, in the film The Thing from Another World, 1951. 

This is an introduction by Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) to Comet Nishimura, a new discovery.

It may become visible to the unaided eye (or not) but those viewing conditions are unique to this comet's orbit, at least they seem so to me. The future of its nucleus is the source of speculation because it will pass so close to the sun - inside the orbit of Mercury. It is possible that it will break up. 

The epigraph, although ripped from its original screen context, is a way of acknowledging cloud and sky watchers and who report on the events overhead.