Skip to main content

Chasing a Comet

More like chasing one's tail.  As in having persistence to keep going after it time and time again.

This was a case where we literally wanted to go see the celestial body known as a comet.

Why you ask?  Well for starters stuff on the planet seems passe.  So why not look up to something?  Literally.

This one is a ball of ice and dust and seen streaking across our solar system for an observer in the northern hemisphere.

Typical viewing times are in the month of July 2020, after dusk below the constellation Ursa Major (or Big Dipper).  Looking out on the NW horizon around 10 pm on the summer evening one might get lucky to see this faint blur of a comet dipping down toward the horizon.

While only 3 miles at its core diameter, Comet NEO-WISE (so named as the acronym is part of a government funded survey for near earth objects), is about 0.66 AU away from viewer on earth at this point (1 AU is earth's distance from our sun = 93M miles).


Below are a couple of pics taken from northern California.  


Formed at the beginning of time these balls of ice, gas and dust have limited shelf life since they blow themselves up passing close to a star like our sun.  This one did survive and makes for a wonderful display as it leaves to not return for another 6,800 years.




What makes it exciting is that this is the first known sighting of a comet for earthlings since the Hale Bopp went by in mid 90s.  For those of us in the northern hemisphere it is a treat that comes by once on few decades.

So long .. (the tail is thousands of miles long due to the particulate blowing away from the comet and getting lit up by the light of the sun).
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On the go(zay masta) in Japan again

Cool cat the Japanese are Tokyo at dusk  My second visit to this land of the rising sun after almost a decade. Back then clearly I was wet behind the ears product manager and likely didn’t pay attention to all (efficient) things Japanese. But today I did and of course continue to be impressed. It is as much the obvious stuff like on time travel that is both clean and comfortable and all that which makes it possible. The impressive landmark and landscapes that these humans have put together despite their cramped (or because of it) surroundings and precarious geological conditions could amaze a novice architect among us. But it’s also the little things that someone had to think about which have a phenomenal impact on day to day lives that make the Japanese stand apart. Below are few random examples- 1. Providing a very fine machined wooden toothpick in every packet of wooden chopsticks. The said chapsticks are simply set on the To Go counter of any food vendor/ convenience store wher...
Post a Comment
Read more

A few good books

 On an informal mission to read one book a week as long as the eyes allow for such ambition. Fiction or non is not important as long as it entertains and /or educates. To that end the past few weeks have brought a bounty in the form of some wonderful and then not so engaging literature. Among the notables are - Non fiction category: 1. Good arguments by Bo Seo (how to handle a dispute or debate the most efficient way possible) 2. Genesis by Eric Schmidt (and former US Secy of State Henry Kissinger, who recently passed) - how AI might affect our lives as we know it 3. One in a billion - Zarna Garg (an autobiographical look at an Indian born American woman with a bindi narrated in a standup format - yes it is at times cliched but still funny) Fiction: 1. Personal by Lee Child (a vigilante story with Jack Reacher the giant, nomad protagonist of Child's novels goes hunting for a sniper) 2. Ramayana unraveled by Ami Ganatra (she might disagree about it being a work of fiction but oh wel...
Post a Comment
Read more

Presumptive Society

Today's world is hyper connected.  I am not so sure what it means but you hear it a lot.  It is probably hyper but not sure how connected it is.  Sugar (fermented or not) is available in many ways than before and so getting hyper is easy.  It is probably more a threat than cocaine since it is sold legally. And what is this connected stuff?  Most people I encounter seem disconnected from reality.  So going back to this assumption that we are connected there are subtle and no so subtle instances of how brands and companies and middle men try to portray someone - A linkedin profile for somebody working for X years at a place advertises to the connected network that so and so is CELEBRATING X years @ Such and Such Inc. Do we know if (s)he is celebrating or cringing?  Perhaps a better way to portray will be - So and So LASTED X years @ such & such inc. Then it exhorts the readership to go ahead and congratulate them for this lasting effe...
2 comments
Read more