Comet Wirtanen

Comet-Wirtanen- as seen through telescope on 11-4-2018

photo credit Martin Mobberley

46P / Wirtanen is a small short-period comet with a current orbital period of 5.4 years. It was the original target for close investigation by the Rosetta spacecraft, planned by the European Space Agency, but an inability to meet the launch window led to Rosetta being sent to 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko instead.It belongs to the Jupiter family of comets, all of which have aphelia between 5 and 6 AU. Its diameter is estimated at 1.2 kilometres (0.75 mi)

Comet Wirtanen is expected to be one of the very few coments that would be visible to the naked eye for sometime.

The Comet will be visible throughout the nights from November to December with naked eye visibility in Mid parts of December. 

The comet would reach the closest point to earth on the 16th of December 2018 and will be visible there on till Jan 2019. This will be a good opportunity to view a Comet as there will be no identified naked eye visible Comet for sometime. 

Watch this space for general information and subscribe to the skyabove SMS alert if you are a Sri Lankan to get more accurate details.