Home > Comet, Ephemeris Program, Uncategorized > 03/21/2013 – Ephemeris – Where did Comet PanSTARRS come from?

03/21/2013 – Ephemeris – Where did Comet PanSTARRS come from?

March 21, 2013

Ephemeris for Thursday, March 21st.  The sun will rise at 7:43.  It’ll be up for 12 hours and 13 minutes, setting at 7:56.   The moon, 2 days past first quarter, will set at 4:52 tomorrow morning.

Comet PanSTARRS is heading away from both the sun and the earth.  It heading northward.  Its orbit is inclined nearly 90 degrees away from the plane of the earth’s orbit.  PanSTARRS will recede far past Neptune or the Kuiper Belt of objects that include the dwarf planet Pluto into the Oort cloud of cometary objects that extend out to a light year or 6 trillion miles from the sun.  This cloud was named after Dutch astronomer Jan Oort.  The comet may be ejected from the solar system.  It’s orbit is currently calculated to be slightly hyperbolic.  If that holds up, it will drift among the stars.  It is thought that occasionally, in millions of years a star comes close or through the Oort cloud and scatters them.

Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.  They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Artist's impression of the Oort Cloud.

Artist’s impression of the Oort Cloud. (NASA/JPL). Hat Tip: Universe Today.

Comet PanSTARRS in the next 5 days at 9:15 p.m.

Comet PanSTARRS in the next 5 days at 9:15 p.m. Created using Stellarium and Cartes du Ciel.

 

 

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