Today, the blue two-tailed comet sprayed poisonous gas called Lulin to the closest position to the earth, with a distance of about 60 million kilometers or 160 times from the earth to the moon.
Lulin comet.Photo: NASA.
With this distance, at most points in the Northern Hemisphere, Lulin comet can be observed with the naked eye from dark places in the coming days. Then Lulin will disappear from our sight in mid-March.
Comet Lulin is green in telescope photographs because the dust from the comet contains cyanogen (a toxic gas) and carbon atoms. Both of these substances emit green light when exposed to sunlight.
Scientists are using NASA's Swift satellite to monitor and study Lulin as it approaches the earth. Satellite data show that this comet drains enough water every 15 minutes to fill an Olympic standard swimming pool, as the hot sun vaporizes its outer material.
Lulin was first discovered in July 2007 by Quanzhi Ye, a Chinese hydro-meteorological student. He took a picture of it at the Lulin Observatory in Taiwan, so Quanzhi called this comet by the observatory's name.
