A Swan in the sky

Indore, Oct 6 (UNI) A newly-discovered comet, SWAN (C/2006 M4), is now visible in the morning sky at 0500 hrs in the north east horizon, Space scientist Dr Ram S Shrivastava said today.

Dr Shrivastava said the comet can be seen through binoculars, in between the Leo constellation and Ursa Major (Saptrishi Mandal), before sunrise.

He said the comet with a bright blue-green coma (the nebulous envelope around the nucleus of a comet) and long tail was located on July 12 this year. Its first images were captured by the Solar Wind Anisotropies (SWAN) instrument of NASA and ESA's Sun-orbiting SOHO spacecraft.

Its orbit appears to be hyperbolic, meaning that it was likely to go off into interstellar space, never to return.

Scientists all over are busy in calculating its various parameters. At present, its magnitude is only 5. Soon it will increase in intensity and could be visible to the naked eye within a month, he added.

Dr Shrivastava said this celestial visitor is coming from a distance of 4.6 billion light years, making it one of the oldest objects in the solar system . The comet is made up of icy rocks known as coma and as it nears the sun, the ice and carbon contents vaporise giving the comet a fuzzy glow when viewed from the ground.

He said the study of comets assumes importance as these could prove to be a source of liquid oxygen and hydrogen for refuelling spacecraft.

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