Look up: Comet set to light up skies above Scotland

Comet to put on dazzling display for skywatchers before disappearing - not to seen again for another 6800 years.

Look up: Comet set to light up skies above Scotland Nasa

A comet travelling through the inner solar system will reach peak brightness above Scotland on Thursday night.

Comet Neowise, officially known as C/2020 F3, was discovered on March 27 and will not be seen again for 6800 years once it disappears, according to NASA.

The comet will reach peak brightness on the evening of July 23 but is visible all week.

“Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) was discovered in late March and brightened as it reached its closest approach to the Sun, inside the orbit of Mercury, late last week,’ Nasa explained on its website.

“The interplanetary iceberg survived solar heating, so far, and is now becoming closer to the Earth as it starts its long trek back to the outer Solar System.”

The comet is one of the brightest since Hale-Bopp, which passed by Earth in 1997.

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