LetsRock Today
Amateur astrophotographer Hideo Nishimura discovered Comet C/2023 P1 (Nishimura) using a digital camera on August 11.
This comet is already visible to the naked eye and will remain so until next week.
It has crossed Earth's orbital path and is set to pass between Venus and Mercury before leaving our solar system.
Traveling at a mind-boggling speed of 240,000 miles per hour, Comet Nishimura is a fast-moving celestial phenomenon.
According to Professor Brad Gibson, this is a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" to witness such a comet.
The comet will come very close to the Sun, inside the orbit of Mercury, which raises the possibility of its nucleus breaking up.
As it approaches the Sun, Comet Nishimura is expected to intensify, potentially becoming visible in early September.
While its exact origin is unknown, many comets in our solar system are believed to come from the enigmatic Oort cloud, located far from the Sun. Voyager 1, our most distant human-made object, is still centuries away from reaching this mysterious region.
Share Story