From the sea – Comet K2, which is thought to have come from a location in the outer part of the solar system, will approach planet Earth.
K2 is different from Halley’s Comet, which periodically passes for about 83 years. It is not known when this comet will pass again near Earth.
Comets are members of the Solar System that also orbit the Sun, like Earth, which travels from the outer solar system (outer solar system) to areas within the Solar System (inner solar system), just crossed Earth.
Comet C/2017 K2 (PanSTARRS) or abbreviated as K2, is thought to have originated from a location in the outer Solar System called the Oort Cloud (Oort Cloud).
Initial C of comet the type is non-periodic, the number 2017 indicates the year it was found, and the combination of letters and numbers K2 indicates the order in which it was found in 2017.
“This comet passes closest to Earth on July 13, 2022 at a distance of about 2 times the distance from Earth to the Sun. Currently K2 is heading its closest distance to the Sun, which is expected to occur in December this year,” said Abdul Rachman, a researcher at the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) who is also the Coordinator of the Kupang National Observatory Management Agency (BPON).
“Because it belongs to the non-periodic comet group, K2 does not regularly pass near Earth like periodic comets such as Halley’s Comet which has a period of about 83 years, so it is not known when it will pass near Earth again.”
Abdul said K2 was discovered by a comet monitoring system called Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (PanSTARRS) located in Hawaii on May 21, 2017.
The appearance of K2 as it passes closest to Earth, showing a dust tail and a gas tail. The closer to the Sun, the gas tail will be more clearly visible.
When passing near Earth, according to Abdul, K2 can only be seen if using a telescope, especially because it coincides with the Full Moon. However, as the comet gets closer to the Sun, it can be seen with binoculars.
“All regions on the surface of the earth have the opportunity to see the comet on a clear night,” said Abdul.
Observations of K2 can be made within a few months, especially as the comet passes near Earth, on its way to its closest point to the Sun. Until a few months after that.
Abdul said, with the phenomenon of comets passing through the earth, through research it can be studied the possibility of the comet falling to earth.
In the case of K2, the comet crossed the earth at a distance of more than 270 million km so that it had no impact on the earth.
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Because it passes quite far from Earth, which is about 2 times the distance from the Sun to Earth, there are no negative effects.
According to Abdul, the observations of Comet K2 at BPON were carried out at the Operational Office and Science Center in Oelnasi Village for several days from July 13 to 16, 2022.
Every day of the observation, the acquisition is carried out for several hours. The collected data can not only be analyzed for research purposes, but can also be used for astrophotography.
“For observations, a telescope that uses a mirror measuring 25 cm and a CCD detector is used which is equipped with several color filters,” he said.
The Head of the Center for Space Research, Emanuel Sungging, said the observational data could be used for research. Not only by BRIN researchers, but all who are interested in studying the dynamics of objects in the Solar System.
The shape of the two comet tails (dust and gas) that can be observed, can be obtained by understanding the intrinsic nature of the comet, as well as on how the space weather conditions at that time.
In addition, said Emanuel, from the comet’s journey, at least until December 2022, it can be seen whether the comet ended its life with stab to the Sun? Or continue its trajectory out of the Solar System? So how is the journey then?
This comet passing phenomenon is a good opportunity for scientists to observe this comet more closely and for astophotography activists to photograph it.
Every comet has uniqueness interesting to study scientifically and to capture through camera shots.
According to Emanuel, the biggest hope from short observations like this is to provide insight and information to the Indonesian people, that the Indonesian people already have an astronomical observatory in the East Nusa Tenggara region that can be used for space research, together with BRIN.
The occurrence of celestial objects such as comet across planet earth cannot be witnessed at all times. It takes a long time, even decades.
These various natural phenomena are of great interest to the public.
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