Science & Environment

Science & Environment

From landfills and laboratories to archaeological digs and deep space

This comet wants to be seen

If you were to pick a month in which to look up from your iPhone and scan the night skies for something meaningful, March is that month.

Seeing something as cool as a comet with the naked eye is a pretty rare event. And comet 2011 L4 (PANSTARRS) is a pretty rare ice ball.

This astronomical bad boy will make itself known several times this month. NASA has a nifty page set up with dates during which viewing is optimal. Click here to see it.

What is a comet, you ask?


Here's a bit more "Each comet has a tiny frozen part, called a nucleus, often no bigger than a few kilometers across. The nucleus contains icy chunks and frozen gases with bits of embedded rock and dust. The nucleus may have a small rocky core."

Are we in danger? Not really. Most comets travel a safe distance from the sun. Some, however, called sun-grazers, crash straight into the sun or get so close that they break up and evaporate.