Good News: This Comet Won't Cause A Mass Extinction In 2020. Also, It's Really Pretty
"The first thing to know about a new comet that has appeared in the evening sky is
that it's one big ice ball: about 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) across."
"'Just to put it into context, about 65 million years ago there was an asteroid or a comet that was thought to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs,' says astronomer Amy Mainzer. 'That object is thought to have been about 5 to 10 kilometers across.'"
"Mainzer is principal investigator for a NASA mission known as NEOWISE that is seeking to spot comets and asteroids that could wipe out life as we know it on Earth."
"And NEOWISE did spot this comet in March."
"And 2020 has been a terrible year so far."
"But don't worry, she says: 'It's definitely not going to hit the Earth.'"
"Instead, the comet, known officially as C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) — or just comet Neowise for short — is providing an unexpected bright spot in the lives of quarantined astronomers. It came from a dark part of the solar system known as the Oort Cloud — an icy graveyard billions of miles out that is filled with ancient comets and asteroids. It shot into the inner solar system, and astronomers watched as it passed the sun at a distance closer than the planet Mercury."