In the mid-northern latitudes, the brightest comet is Comet 19P/Borrelly. The comet was closest to the earth in December, but it’s still putting on a show. Here’s more from Astronomy Now:
Comet 19P/Borrelly is a periodic comet (denoted by the ‘P’ in its official designation) that takes about 6.9 years to orbit the Sun. In September 2021 the Deep Space 1 spacecraft famously visited the comet, beaming back high-resolution images showing the comet shaped like a chicken leg across its 8 x 4 x 4 kilometre form. Comet 19P/Borrelly is classed a ‘Jupiter-family comet’, described as short-period comets (orbital periods less than 20 years) whose current orbits are influenced by Jupiter’s massive gravitational attraction. Comet 19P/Borrelly was discovered by Alphonse Louis Nicolas Borrelly on 28 December 1904 in Marseille, France.
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