Eyes on the Skies for New Year's Eve! Comets Currently Zooming Through the Inner Solar System Plus Best Space Pics of 2016 (Videos)

December 31 2016

New Year’s Eve sky show: Two bright comets currently zooming through the inner solar system will be so bright that we should be able to see it in the night sky with binoculars, and maybe even with the naked eye.

Comet 45P/Honda–Mrkos–Pajdusakova

Look for the comet 45P/Honda–Mrkos–Pajdusakova in the sky on New Year’s Eve. NASA says as we ring in the new year, a comet will near 
the moon and be visible to those looking west.
Comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdušáková, named after the astronomers who discovered it in 1948, takes 5.25 years to complete its orbit.
This year, it was first visible on the low western horizon on December 15.

The comet’s maximum brightness will be about magnitude 6 — the equivalent of looking at a faint star with the naked eye.
It will reach its perihelion on New Year’s Day, making its orbit around the sun and disappearing from visibility from Earth. 

It will be viewable, and reach its maximum brightness, once it swings back around the sun in 2017. The comet passes just 0.08 AU (7.4 million miles) from the Earth on February 11th.

A rare comet is zooming past Earth right now, and you should be able to see it with binoculars. 

The comet was first detected by NASA’s NEOWISE mission in 
October, and its trajectory is currently taking it on a safe pass 
by Earth as it approaches the Sun. But as it zooms by, it should be so bright between now and January 14 that we’ll be able to see it using just binoculars, and maybe even with the naked eye. 

According to David Dickinson at Universe Today, “comet C/2016 U1 NEOWISE is set to break binocular +10th magnitude brightness this week, and may just top +6th magnitude (naked eye brightness) in mid-January near perihelion”.
Magnitude brightness refers to how bright an object is in the night sky, and the lower the number, the better. For perspective, Venus is around –4.4 magnitude at maximum brightness ,and the Moon is –12.7 magnitude.

Comets are intrinsically unpredictable objects, and future magnitude estimates must always be taken with a pinch of salt. As they approach the Sun, they tend to heat up rapidly and quickly start shedding material in a glorious dust trail. This change in composition can rapidly change how visible the comets are in the night sky – sometimes they become brighter, and sometimes they go dark.

C/2016 U1 NEOWISE has already made its closest approach to Earth on December 13, at a distance of around 106 million km (66 million miles). This week, it’s around 140 million km (87 million miles) away as it approaches the Sun – around 350 times further away from us than our Moon.
http://www.sciencealert.com/a-comet-i…

From Nemisis Maturity:

From 

Plus New Comet, Coronal Holes, Flash Floods

From The Cosmos News

Happy New Year 2017:Best Space Photos Of 2016

From Paul Begley

“Scientist Confirm Waves Of Cosmic Rays Of Energy”

From Nemesis Maturity:

New Year’s Celestial Fireworks, Earth will Pass through a Stream of Debris from an Eerie Comet

2017 is beginning with #celestial fireworks. You are about to see a lightshow from shattered comet 2003 EH1.

According to the International Meteor Organization and other forecasters, Earth will pass through a stream of debris from the comet on January 3, 2017, producing a shower of meteors known as the Quadrantids.

The Quadrantid meteor shower is one of the most intense annual meteor showers, typically producing meteors at a rate of more than 100 per hour from a point in the sky near the North Star, also known as the shower’s radiant.

The 2017 Quadrantids are expected to peak around 1400 UT – or around 6 am PST. The timing favors western parts of North America and islands across the Pacific.

Extra motivation to go out and view the Quadrantids is provided by the shower’s reputation for producing spectacular fireballs, according to experts.

The source of the Quadrantid #meteorshower comes from 2003 EH1, an “asteroid” that is probably a piece of a comet that broke apart some 500 years ago. Earth intersects the orbit of 2003 EH1 at a perpendicular angle, which means we quickly move through any debris. That’s why the shower doesn’t last long, a few hours at most. 

Those willing to brave the cold weather while keeping their eyes on the skies could be rewarded with a spectacular show!

Quadrantid meteors take their name from an obsolete constellation, Quadrans Muralis, found in early 19th-century star atlases between Draco, Hercules, and Bootes. It was removed, along with a few other constellations, from crowded sky maps in 1922 when the International Astronomical Union adopted the modern list of 88 officially recognized constellations. Although the Quadrantids now fly out of the constellation Bootes, the meteors kept their old name.

Quadrantid meteors: they come from a shattered comet and an extinct constellation.

That sounds like they are worth a look. Bundle up for chilly meteor viewing on January 3. It’s a great way to start the New Year.