Comet McNaught
The Great Comet of 2007, the brightest in over 40 years, with a spectacular fanned tail over the southern hemisphere.
Key facts
- Designation
- C/2006 P1 (McNaught)
- Type
- Long-period comet
- Orbital period
- none known: it is probably leaving the Solar System
- Closest to the Sun
- 0.17 AU (about 25 million km)
- Farthest from the Sun
- far beyond the planets
- Tilt of orbit
- about 78°
- Nucleus
- not measured; a few kilometres or more
- Discovered
- by Robert McNaught at Siding Spring Observatory, Australia, on 7 August 2006
- Returns
- passed closest to the Sun on 12 January 2007
Orbit
Comet McNaught came in from the outer Solar System and passed the Sun inside Mercury's orbit in January 2007. Its outbound path is probably open, so it may never return.
Size and nature
Near perihelion it reached about magnitude −5, brighter than Venus, and could be seen in daylight by those who knew where to look. A few days later, from the southern hemisphere, it spread a broad, curved dust tail across a large part of the evening sky. The tail was striped with bands called striae, made when the dust breaks into fragments and is pushed by sunlight.
History
Robert McNaught, a Scottish-born astronomer working in Australia on a survey for near-Earth asteroids, found it in August 2006. He discovered more than 80 comets. Few expected this one to be so bright, but its close pass of the Sun made it the brightest comet since Ikeya–Seki in 1965.
Missions
The SOHO solar observatory saw it brilliantly in its coronagraph, and the Ulysses spacecraft passed through its tail about 250 million km from the head in February 2007, finding that the tail had disturbed the solar wind far behind the comet.
Space missions
- SOHO A solar observatory that has become the greatest comet discoverer in history.
Key dates
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| 7 August 2006 | Robert McNaught discovered the Great Comet of 2007. |
| 12 January 2007 | Comet McNaught passed closest to the Sun, brighter than Venus. |
Did you know?
It was the brightest comet seen from Earth since 1965.
Its tail looked like a giant fan from Australia, South America and southern Africa.
Ulysses also crossed the tail of Hyakutake, years earlier.