A comet sailing through the inner system make its closest approach to the sun and will be at its brightest at sunset tonight, but the glare of twilight may make it tricky to see.
Pan-Starrs will be 28 million miles (45 million kilometres) from the surface of the sun when it swings around the star today, and should be bright enough to see without the aid of telescopes or binoculars, weather permitting. But the comet is also appearing low on the western horizon at sunset so some planning is needed to spot the celestial wanderer with the naked eye tonight.
"Look too early and the sky will be too bright," said Rachel Stevenson, a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Look too late, the comet will be too low and obstructed by the horizon. This comet has a relatively small window."
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