Celestial Visitor Returns After a Million Years: Comet C/2025 F2 (SWAN)
Comet C/2025 F2 (SWAN), a newly discovered celestial object, boasts an astonishingly long orbital period estimated at roughly 1.4 million years. This immense timescale signifies that its current appearance in our skies is an exceptionally rare event, unlikely to be witnessed again by anyone alive today. The comet's presence offers a unique opportunity for astronomical observation and study of a long-period comet making its perihelion passage. Independently co-discovered in late March 2025 by amateur astronomers Vladimir Bezugly and Michael Mattiazzo through images captured by the SWAN instrument aboard the SOHO spacecraft, this icy wanderer provides valuable insights into the composition and dynamics of the outer solar system and the history of our planetary neighborhood. Its extended journey highlights the vastness of cosmic time and the infrequent nature of such close encounters with these primordial solar system remnants. How NASA Measures This: NASA utilizes sophist...
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