Follow that Comet! (April 17, 2002)
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The comet SOHO-422 was first reported on Friday, April 12, by
XingMing Zhou of China, who discovered the comet while watching SOHO
real-time images on the internet. The comet is a new comet, not
belonging to any known group of comets. It will be visible in SOHO's
LASCO C3 images until Saturday, April 20 when it leaves our field of
view as shown in the drawing of its estimated path. The comet was first visible late in the day on Thursday, April 11. It entered our instrument's view at the bottom edge, almost directly under the Sun. It moved upwards to the left, and is moving move back towards the right. The closest it will come to the Sun is about 13 solar radii. Comets are balls of frozen ice and dust with long tails trailing debris behind them. SOHO began its Weekly Pick some time after sending a weekly image or video clip to the American Museum of Natural History (Rose Center) in New York City. There, the SOHO Weekly Pick is displayed with some annotations on a large plasma display. If your institution would also like to receive the same Weekly Pick from us for display (usually in Photoshop or QuickTime format), please send your inquiry to steele.hill@gsfc.nasa.gov. |
