Look! Up in the Sky!

Only about once in a decade do you really get to see a comet.  This decade’s spectacle is Comet McNaught, discovered last July by an Australian astronomer, Robert McNaught. 

We’ve posted STORIES over the last few days as it came closer and closer to the Sun.  Last week it was visible in the northern hemisphere just after dusk, and again just before dawn.  Some nice stills are HERE. This weekend it whipped around the sun, coming within about 16 million miles of it.  For us earthlings, it disappeared from view, but the SOHO spacecraft was able to see it. NASA and the European Space Agency have posted a time-lapse Quicktime MOVIE of McNaught as seen from SOHO.  Here’s a SMALLER VERSION if your computer doesn’t like the large one. (Picture last week from Barrow, Alaska.  AP Photo/ Cindy Shults)