NEOWISE mission spies one comet, maybe two

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NASA's 'NEOWISE' mission has discovered two celestial objects in the vicinity of the solar system that are bound to pass close to the Earth. The 'NEOWISE' mission is a component of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer project which maintains a database of near earth objects.

According to the NEOWISE mission official page, it harvests measurements of asteroids and comets from images collected by WISE spacecraft.

As per a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory news report, the project detected an object named 2016 WF9, engaged in an orbit towards the inner solar system. The object will approach the Earth on February 25^th, 2017. But there is no cause for worry as its nearest distance to our planet will be nearly 32 million miles (51 million kilometers). As of yet, the size of the object is calculated to be roughly 0.3 to 0.6 mile across i.e. around 0.5 to 1 kilometer. But whether 2016 WF9 is a comet or an asteroid is still a mystery.

The same news report confirms the second object to be a comet named C/2016 U1 which will possibly be visible through a good binocular. 2016 WF9 is also reported to have the reflectivity and orbit that is expected of a comet but lacks the gas and dust cloud that usually surrounds one. If it is found out that WF9 is indeed a comet, it would be the 10^th comet discovered after reactivation of the NEOWISE mission in December 2013. And if the WF9 turns out to be an asteroid, it would be the 100^th discovered since reactivation.

What does this mean for the Earth? None of the objects discovered have a potential to collide with the planet. This New Year will be yet another great and safe celebration of the age of the planet. And to feast the eyes of stargazers, C/2016 U1 and 2016 WF9 will be greeting the Earth from a safe distance.