Backyard Universe: Comet draws near during holiday season
A comet discovered in the late 1940s will make a near record close pass by us in mid-December.Comet 46P/Wirtanen was discovered in 1948 by Carl A. Wirtanen using a 20-inch telescope at California’s Lick Observatory.Comets are essentially “dirty snowballs” made of ice and dust left over from the formation of the solar system billions of years ago. They orbit the sun just like planets, but often in more oblong and sometimes open ended orbits. When they […]
