If You Miss This Comet This Week, You’ll Have To Wait 7000 Years

A recently discovered comet, named Neowise, is giving us a once in a lifetime look, because of its brightness, at something very rare, a peak at a conglomeration of dust, ice and gases dating back to the formation of the solar system.

(NASA via YouTube)

Timing is everything, as always, and this week is the best time to get a glimpse of this astronomical phenomenon. Experts say, for Michiganders, look to the northwest. The best time for viewing is going to be just after sunset. It has been just before sunrise but in the coming days, the comet will become more visible in the hours after sunset.. You'll have better luck seeing it if you live away from city lights, etc. The one hitch is isolated storms are a part of the local forecast beginning on Wednesday.

Scientifically, it's

"C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE), or Comet NEOWISE, is a retrograde comet with a near-parabolic orbit discovered on March 27, 2020, by astronomers using the NEOWISE space telescope. At that time, it was a 10th-magnitude comet, located 2 AU (300 million km; 190 million mi) away from the Sun and 1.7 AU (250 million km; 160 million mi) away from Earth. - Wikipedia

What's fascinating is reading up on the history (and future of this comet.) Some experts say it's been 4,000 years since it last passed by earth, and it will be another 6,800 years before it does again. I know that those are based on scientific calculations, but since none of were here the last time, and presumably none will be here the next time, how do they 'really' know?