January 11 , 2023
677 days
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- A newly discovered comet could be visible to the naked eye as it shoots past Earth and the Sun.
- This is the first time in 50,000 years.
- After travelling from the icy reaches of our Solar System it will come closest to the Sun and pass nearest to Earth.
- The comet is estimated to have a diameter of around a kilometre
- The comet has spent most of its life "at least 2,500 times more distant than the Earth is from the Sun.
- The last time the comet passed Earth was during the Upper Palaeolithic period, when Neanderthals still roamed Earth.
- This comet's next visit to the inner Solar System was expected in another 50,000 years.
- This will smaller than NEOWISE, the last comet visible with an unaided eye, which passed Earth in March 2020.
- Earlier in 1997, the Hale-Bopp comet swept by with a potentially life-ending diameter of around 60 kilometres.
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