Maine & New Hampshire Can See A Super Moon AND A Comet This Week

If you are looking for something fun to do with the kids, or maybe a way to spend a romantic evening with that special someone, you'll have a couple unique ways to do it this week.

Providing we have clear enough skies, you'll be able to see a massive super moon AND a comet this week.

According to Space, the largest super moon of the year will be visible later this week.  Early on Wednesday (Jul13th) morning, the Moon will be at it a distance of just under 222,000 miles from Earth.  That's the closest it will come to us in 2022.  That closest approach will happen at about 5 AM.  Then, 9 hours and 38 minutes later, the Moon will officially be "full".  With these times in mind, the best viewing of the full moon will be either Wednesday night or Thursday night.

But, what about the comet?

According to a Popular Science article, C/2017 K2, or simply K2, is currently cruising through our solar system.  Scientists estimate that it could be as much as 100 miles across and it will be at its closest point to us on Thursday night.  Because it is still going to be quite a distance from us, your best bet would be to use a small telescope or binoculars to see the comet.

The article says, in part:

The K2 comet was first detected through the Hubble Space Telescope in May 2017 between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus—about 2.4 billion kilometers from the sun. NASA reported it was the farthest they have seen a comet enter the solar system’s planetary zone.

Scientists are pretty sure that the comet came from the Oort Cloud.  For those who are not familiar with the Oort Cloud, it is a "sphere" of objects in a deep freeze at the edge of our solar system.  According to scientists, the comet makes a long trip around the solar system.  Because of this, we only get to see it every 200 years.

Still want to see the comet, but the skies are cloudy?  Check out the live stream the comet HERE.