Comet Nishimura will be visible to the naked eye this weekend: what’s the best way to view it?

Comet Nishimura, discovered just a month ago, is heading toward the Sun and will shine brightest over the weekend, offering a spectacle visible through simple binoculars or even the naked eye.

This small rocky and icy body, the exact dimensions of which are not yet known, was named after the Japanese amateur astronomer Hideo Nishimura, who first observed it on August 11.

Last visit 437 years ago.

“It is rare to spot a comet just before its maximum clairvoyance. Most of them are detected months, even years before they pass closest to the Sun,” emphasizes Nicolas Biver, CNRS researcher at the Paris Observatory (PSL).

“C/2023 P1”, as its scientific name suggests, has a long-period orbit with a last pass near the Sun dating back to 437 years, he explains to AFP. No traces of the last passage of this icy guest were found in astronomical archives, the astrophysicist clarified.

Greenish stripe

When comets (celestial bodies from the cold regions of the solar system) approach our star, the ice contained in their core sublimes and releases a long trail of dust that reflects the light of the Sun.

Comet Nishimura’s tail is greenish because it contains “more gas than dust.”

It is these shiny hairs that we can observe from Earth. Comet Nishimura will pass closest to the Sun on September 17, when it will be 33 million kilometers from the star, or “less than a quarter of the distance from Earth to the Sun,” and 125 million kilometers from Earth. Nicholas Beaver.

If the sky is clear

We can already see it, but this weekend it will be at its brightest, especially in the northern hemisphere. “The best time to look at the sky is before sunrise (around 6 am in France), heading northeast to the left of Venus (commonly known as the Shepherd Star), with clear skies and no light pollution,” the researcher advises.

A small pair of binoculars will be enough to enjoy a spectacle that some could even see with the naked eye if the atmospheric conditions were right.