K2, our solar system's brightest comet, will pass close to Earth this week. When should you view it?
Take out your binoculars: This week, a comet that has enthralled scientists for five years comes its closest approach to Earth — and you might be able to see it.
The C/2017 K2 PANSTARRS comet, commonly known as K2, may be seen on Wednesday or Thursday as it makes its final transit through the solar system.
According to David Jewitt, an Earth, planetary, and space sciences professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Jewitt advised stargazers that the K2 comet will still be a long way away from Earth at a distance of around 170 million miles According to him, the sun is approximately 93 million miles distant.
On May 21, 2017, the C/2017 K2 PANSTARRS comet piqued the interest of researchers at Hawaii's Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System.
According to experts, pre-discovery photos of the comet from 2013 were later discovered.
According to NASA, it was found 1.5 billion miles from the sun, between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus, after having been journeying for millions of years from the cold solar system's depths.
When K2 was photographed by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, it was the farthest active incoming comet ever seen.
According to Jewitt, it was spotted at a distance 17 times that of the sun.
In June 2021, scientists said that C/2014 UN271, also known as the Bernardinelli-Bernstein comet, had overtaken it as the comet that has been spotted in the farthest distance.