• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Tuesday, October 28, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Chemistry

New comet discovered by ESA and NASA solar observatory

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
May 13, 2020
in Chemistry
Reading Time: 2 mins read
0
IMAGE
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

IMAGE

Credit: ESA/NASA/SOHO

In late May and early June, Earthlings may be able to glimpse Comet SWAN. The comet is currently faintly visible to the unaided eye in the Southern Hemisphere just before sunrise — providing skywatchers with a relatively rare glimpse of a comet bright enough to be seen without a telescope. But Comet SWAN’s initial discovery was made not from the ground, but via an instrument on board ESA (the European Space Agency) and NASA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO, satellite.

The new comet was first spotted in April 2020, by an amateur astronomer named Michael Mattiazzo using data from a SOHO instrument called Solar Wind Anisotropies, or SWAN — as seen here. The comet appears to leave the left side of the image and reappear on the right side around May 3, because of the way SWAN’s 360-degree all-sky maps are shown, much like a globe is represented by a 2D map.

SWAN maps the constantly outflowing solar wind in interplanetary space by focusing on a particular wavelength of ultraviolet light emitted by hydrogen atoms. The new comet — officially classified C/2020 F8 (SWAN) but nicknamed Comet SWAN — was spotted in the images because it’s releasing huge amounts of water, about 1.3 tons per second. As water is made of hydrogen and oxygen, this release made Comet SWAN visible to SOHO’s instruments.

Comet SWAN is the 3,932nd comet discovered using data from SOHO. Almost all of the nearly 4,000 discoveries have been made using data from SOHO’s coronagraph, an instrument that blocks out the Sun’s bright face using a metal disk to reveal the comparatively faint outer atmosphere, the corona. This is only the 12th comet discovered with the SWAN instrument since SOHO’s launch in 1995, eight of which were also discovered by Mattiazzo.

Comet SWAN makes its closest approach to Earth on May 13, at a distance of about 53 million miles. Comet SWAN’s closest approach to the Sun, called perihelion, will happen on May 27.

Though it can be very difficult to predict the behavior of comets that make such close approaches to the Sun, scientists are hopeful that Comet SWAN will remain bright enough to be seen as it continues its journey.

###

Media Contact
Sarah Frazier
[email protected]

Original Source

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/new-comet-discovered-by-esa-and-nasa-solar-observatory

Tags: AstronomyAstrophysicsComets/AsteroidsSatellite Missions/ShuttlesSpace/Planetary Science
Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

blank

Could Neutrinos Unlock the Mysteries of Our Existence?

October 28, 2025
Introducing the World’s First Online Course on Carbon Dioxide Removal: A Breakthrough for Climate Science Education

Introducing the World’s First Online Course on Carbon Dioxide Removal: A Breakthrough for Climate Science Education

October 28, 2025

Nanographene Morphs: Oxidation Bends Molecules, Alters Properties!

October 28, 2025

Innovative Manufacturing Techniques for Stretchable Synaptic Transistors Unveiled

October 28, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • Sperm MicroRNAs: Crucial Mediators of Paternal Exercise Capacity Transmission

    1288 shares
    Share 514 Tweet 322
  • Stinkbug Leg Organ Hosts Symbiotic Fungi That Protect Eggs from Parasitic Wasps

    311 shares
    Share 124 Tweet 78
  • ESMO 2025: mRNA COVID Vaccines Enhance Efficacy of Cancer Immunotherapy

    198 shares
    Share 79 Tweet 50
  • New Study Suggests ALS and MS May Stem from Common Environmental Factor

    135 shares
    Share 54 Tweet 34

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Analyzing Red Cell Transfusions in Hospital Patients

Sorghum Polyamine Oxidase Genes: Drought Resilience Insights

Novel GLI2 Mutation Linked to Culler-Jones Syndrome

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 67 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.