Answer to Question #162987 in Astronomy | Astrophysics for Danfulde

Question

What kind of celestial object is Neowise C/2020 F3 and what makes it special?

Answer 1

C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) is a long period comet with a near parabolic orbit. It was discovered in March, 2020. The semi-major axis is more than 270 AU and eccentricity exceeds 0.999. It passed perihelion on July 3rd, 2020. In July, 2020 it was bright enough to be seen by an unaided eye and it looked like the brightest star. The comet had two tails, the first tail was blue (gas and ions) and the second had golden colour (dust).