[新闻] 尼特过近日点，亮度负2等。

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This Is SKY & TELESCOPE's AstroAlert for Comets
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                COMET NEAT'S RENDEZVOUS WITH THE SUN

Like Comet Kudo-Fujikawa two weeks ago, the much brighter Comet NEAT (C/2002 V1) has now entered the field of view of SOHO's LASCO C3 coronagraph. It first appeared this afternoon (February 16th) near the top of the frame. Images are being returned every hour or so by the SOHO spacecraft, and they can be viewed at:

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime-images.html

Although this comet may be as bright as magnitude -2 during the next few days, it is too close to the Sun to be observed safely by ordinary techniques. The Minor Planet Center's latest orbital elements indicate that Comet NEAT will reach perihelion at about 7 hours Universal Time on February 18th. It will then be just 0.099 astronomical unit from the Sun (one-fourth the mean orbital distance of Mercury).

The comet will depart the LASCO C3 field of view on February 19th.


Roger W. Sinnott
Senior Editor
Sky & Telescope

没法看啊