Hello lovely people! Today's thread is dedicated to the #NEOWISE comet! In this thread we'll be talking about its discovery, its physical structure and a few fun facts! Let's go!! #scicomm (1/11)

Officially known as C/2020 F3, Comet
Neowise is a comet which was discovered on March 27 by NASAs Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, an orbiting telescope. Below is its view from the ISS (cred: NASA) (2/11)

Comets are usually icy structures made of ice, rock and dust. When they orbit the sun elliptically, they heat up and start streaming two tails, one that is made of dust and gas and an "ion tail" which is made of electrically-charged gas molecules also known as ions. (3/11)

Now because Neowise is so particularly bright, it can easily be seen by naked eyes
Skywatchers in the Northern Hemisphere can spot the object just after sunset, to the northwest just under the Big Dipper or Ursa major constellation ( aka the "pan" shaped constellation) (4/11)

If you're worried that you might need some fancy gizmos to be able to view the comet, fret not! If you want to catch sight of this beautiful comet, all you need are your eyes! And if you do have binoculars or a fancy telescope, then lucky lucky you!! (5/11)

Because of its brightness, scientists have been able to procure data in much larger amounts than one can from a typical comet, which will lead to detailed studies later. (6/11)

Now to talk about Neowise's tail, it indeed has the typical 2 tails. Researchers have deduced that Neowise has atomic sodium in it's tail which will further help study its chemical content better. (7/11)

Comet #Neowise is about 3 miles (roughly 5 kilometers) long with enough water to fill about 13 million Olympic sized swimming pools. Its also traveling at about 40 miles per second (that's about 144,000 mph, or 231,000 km/h)!!! (8/11)

Because of the comet's extremely elliptical orbit, it will slow down as it reaches its farthest point from the sun, then fall toward the inner solar system and accelerate again when it heads back round the sun. Now that it's done w it's elliptical orbit around the sun... (9/11)

...Neowise will make its way to outer solar system. Sad news folkx, it's not an interstellar object :(
Also if you want to see it you better do so in the next few days or wait for another 6800 years (first option is easy peasy amirite?) (10/11)

In all, the discovery of Neowise has come as an opportunity for astronomers and astronomy enthusiasts alike to break free of the lockdown boredom to observe and photograph this wonder. For the ones preparing to watch this wonder, happy comet hunting!! (11/11)