Super Cosmic Space Fact of the Day!!
Finding a new comet is rare enough. But, getting to name it after yourself? Now that’s ten billion percent an achievement of a lifetime.
Meet Comet C/2024 E1 (Wierzchos), it was discovered by Polish astronomer Kacper Wierzchos in March 2024, and after nearly two years falling toward the inner Solar System, it made its closest pass by the Sun before swinging back outward. It also passed within about 151 million kilometers of Earth—just a little farther than the distance between Earth and the Sun.
The fun part is that, from our perspective, the comet appeared to drift in front of distant galaxies in the constellation Cetus. Of course, those galaxies are millions of light-years farther away, the comet was just crossing our line of sight while racing through the Solar System at roughly 47 kilometers per second.
So if you pointed a telescope at it, you'd be looking at an icy visitor only one astronomical unit away, perfectly lined up against galaxies so distant their light began its journey long before humans existed. Tsk, this is proof that the universe loves a good flyby.
