Green Comet

Comet Lulin approaches:

As­tro­no­mers are keep­ing a close eye on a green­ish com­et fast ap­proach­ing Earth’s vicin­ity, reach­ing its near­est point to us on Feb. 24.

Com­et Lulin will streak by the earth with­in 38 mil­lion miles—160 times far­ther than the moon—and is ex­pected to be vis­i­ble to the na­ked eye. Dis­cov­ered only a year ago, the com­et gains its green colour from poi­son­ous cy­an­o­gen and di­a­tom­ic car­bon gas­es in its at­mos­phere.

This will be the com­et’s first vis­it to the Earth’s in­ner so­lar sys­tem.

...Com­et Lulin, which is for­mally known as C/2007 N3, was dis­cov­ered last year by as­tron­o­mers at Tai­wan’s Lulin Ob­serv­a­to­ry.

...“The com­et is quite ac­tive,” said team mem­ber Den­nis Bode­wits, a NASA Post­doc­tor­al Fel­low at the God­dard Space Flight Cen­ter in Green­belt, Md. The tel­e­scope da­ta “show that Lulin was shed­ding nearly 800 gal­lons of wa­ter each sec­ond,” enough to fill an Olympic-sized swim­ming pool in less than 15 min­utes.