Green Comet Makes Closest Approach to Earth

A green-glowing comet called C/2017 S3 will make its closest approach to Earth on Tuesday, Sky & Telescope reports.

The traveling hunk of ice and rock, which Live Science compares to a flying Incredible Hulk, has probably never traveled into the inner solar system before, the publication reported.

File photo: A comet tears through the sky. C/2017 S3 was visible through binoculars in July. Getty Images

The comet was visible as a green-glowing dot for a time through binoculars back in July, Sky & Telescope reported. The outlet said an explosion of diatomic carbon gas was responsible for its minty color. But Live Science reported it is currently too close to the sun to be visible. If you want to track its progress through space, theSkyLive.com has made a set of handy charts.

Astronomers spotted the comet with the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope on September 23, 2017, Aerith.net’s comet catalog reported. The Pan-STARRS (Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System) observatory is located in Haleakala, Hawaii. The observatory watches the skies for moving objects.

The comet will make its closest approach to the sun August 15, Sky & Telescope reported. It will travel just 0.2 astronomical units from our solar system’s glowing furnace—that’s about 18.5 million miles.

That might seem pretty far, but it’s much closer than even Mercury. Mercury—the nearest planet to the sun—travels as close as 29 million miles from our host star.

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Later in August, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is set to travel even closer to our solar system’s burning heart. The craft will “touch” the sun, flying within just four million miles of the star. A high-tech heat shield will protect the probe from temperatures of around 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit.

Layers of superheated carbon-carbon composite surround the heat shield’s 4.5-inch-thick carbon foam core, NASA reported. A special white coating will help to reflect energy from the sun away from the probe itself.

Scientists hope the revolutionary probe will reveal some of the secrets of the sun’s turbulent corona—one of the outer layers of our star’s atmosphere. This incredibly hot region is bizarrely hotter than the surface of the sun—just one of the mysteries scientists hope the probe will be able to shed light on. The mission will also investigate space weather, like the solar wind that interacts with Earth’s own magnetic field.

If you’re disappointed to have missed out on viewing the glowing green C/2017 S3 comet, this month still holds one of the best light shows of the year: the Perseid meteor shower, which will reach its peak over the coming weekend.

NASA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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