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NASA's Swift Gamma-ray Explorer is keeping tabs on the comet Lulin, treating scientists to visions of ultraviolet and X-ray images for the first time, reports a NASA news release.
Img: Comet Lulin. Credit: NASA
“We won’t be able to send a space probe to Comet Lulin, but Swift is giving us some of the information we would get from just such a mission,” said Jenny Carter, at the University of Leicester, UK, who is leading the study.
“The comet is releasing a great amount of gas, which makes it an ideal target for X-ray observations,” said her Leicester colleague Andrew Read.
The comet, named after the Lulin observatory through which it was first detected in Taiwan, will pass at its closest point of 38 million miles on Monday night for North American viewers. NASA's Swift satellite has been tracking the comet for over a month, during which time it has been described by the satellite's controllers as being “quite active”.
“The Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) data shows that Lulin was shedding nearly 800 gallons of water each second,” said Dennis Bodewits, a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
“This gives us a unique view into the types and quantities of gas a comet produces, which gives us clues about the origin of comets and the solar system,” Bodewits added.
Swift's X-ray analysis will lead the way to future observations when better data can be obtained to determine the comet's make-up, said the news release.
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