Object Analysis

Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) is a long-period comet with a near-parabolic orbit discovered on March 27, 2020, by astronomers using the NEOWISE space telescope. It passed closest to the Sun on July 3, 2020, and was the brightest comet in the northern hemisphere since Comet Hale–Bopp in 1997.

NEOWISE developed two distinct tails: a curved, yellow dust tail (pushed by sunlight) and a faint, straight, blue ion tail (pushed by the solar wind). The comet's nucleus is estimated to be about 5 km across.

Following its perihelion passage, the comet's orbital period increased from about 4,400 years to about 6,700 years. It will not return to the inner Solar System for nearly seven millennia, making its 2020 appearance a once-in-a-civilization event.