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Travelers In The NightA real "Science Snack" for anyone who is interested in the extraterrestrial. Dr. Al Grauer is a member of the Catalina Sky Survey which has led the world in near Earth asteroid discoveries for 17 of the past 19 years. The music is "Eternity" by John... Author: Albert D. Grauer Language: en Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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410E-451-Going Far
Tuesday, 13 October, 2026
My Catalina Sky Survey teammate Jess Johnson was very surprised when the large comet with a long stringy tail, which he has just imaged with our 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona, was an unknown object. Jess quickly emailed his discovery observations along with a description of the comet's coma and tail to the Minor Planet Center. Over the next eight days astronomers at 11 different observatories around the world tracked Jess's new comet. Scientists at the Minor Planet used these data to calculate it's path around the Sun, verify it to be a comet, and give it the name C/2018 F3 (Johnson). We now know that Comet C/2018 F3 (Johnson) had crossed the orbit of Pluto in 1997 and had reached it's closest point to the Sun 217 days previous to Jess's discovery observations. Further, about two weeks before Jess spotted it , moving through the constellation of Leo, Comet 2018 F3 (Johnson) had streaked unnoticed past the Earth. Unfortunately Jess's comet is likely to be visible only in electronic camera images and in 2037 will once again cross Pluto's average distance from the Sun on a path which will take it into truly deep space. Until a few years ago all of the comets human astronomers had observed originated in the distant regions of our solar system, the Kuiper Belt or the Oort Cloud . Perhaps C/2018 F3 (Johnson) is an interstellar visiting Comet and is thus a sample of a place currently beyond our reach.
