WHEN NEOWISE DROPPED BY

A look back at the spectacular comet that graced our skies in July

“As soon as we saw how close it would come to the Sun, we had hopes that it would put on a good show,” said Amy Mainzer, NEOWISE principal investigator at the University of Arizona. And indeed it did.

First spotted by NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) mission on 27 March, the icy visitor Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE survived the roasting of its close journey past our Sun to put on a stunning show.

Through much of July we were wowed by nightly views of it streaking across from Capella to below the Plough, its twin tails stretching for millions of kilometres behind it. Glowing as bright as mag. –2 at its peak, it was seen easily with the naked eye, but was an unalloyed joy when seen with binoculars and small telescopes. By late in the month its green smudgy coma was still evident, but all too soon it faded from view as it headed back to the cold outer reaches of the Solar System.

To rekindle those thrilling days, we’ve compiled some of the most remarkable images of the comet, from the ground and from space.