To give an idea of scale and how close together these comets are, the Moon is about 60 times as wide as the view that is shown in this video. At closest approach on 27th March, the comets are slightly under two arcseconds apart. They are about 90 degrees 'ahead' of the Earth in their orbit, with their distance from the Earth increasing from 1.4AU to 1.7AU during the period of the video. During this period, the two comets are near perihelion, which is just inside the Earth's orbit (0.97AU). This is an AstroGrav video that shows a simulation of comets 73P and 73P-BT as seen from the Earth in March and April 2017. Comets 73P and 73P-BT in March / April 2017 You will need AstroGrav 3.6 or better to use this simulation, and might need to change the time step in the evolution settings in order to get the simulation to run at an acceptable speed. You can download the simulation file itself, run it with AstroGrav, and edit and experiment with it as you wish. The bright object that can be seen moving very rapidly from right to left about once a month is the Moon. From mid-November 2018 until early January 2019, the comet moves rapidly north, crossing the equator on 10th December. ![]() ![]() The J2000 celestial reference frame and equator are shown. This is an AstroGrav video that shows a simulation of the path of Comet 46P/Wirtanen as seen from Earth between early August 2018 and late March 2019. The right of the two symbols on the orbit indicates the ascending node of the comet, which is the point where the comet moves from below the plane of the Earth's orbit to above the plane of the Earth's orbit. The left of the two symbols on the orbit indicates the perihelion of the comet, which is the point where the comet is closest to the Sun. This is an AstroGrav video that shows a simulation of the path of Comet 46P/Wirtanen as seen from space between early August 2018 and late March 2019. Juno's Earth Flyby on Oct 9th 2013 Comet 46P/Wirtanen From Space.Mars as Seen From Comet C/2013 A1 on 19th Oct 2014.The Changing Orbit of Comet 209P/LINEAR.Total Eclipse of the Sun - 20th March 2015.New Horizons' Encounter With Pluto in July 2015.Total Eclipse of the Sun - 21st August 2017.Comets 73P and 73P-BT in March / April 2017.Image quality is greatly superior when running simulations from within AstroGrav. These movies are ordered chronologically, with the most recent first and the oldest last. ![]() The following movies are available showing interesting recent events.
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