NASA's NEOWISE Spots Its First Comet 'C/2014 C3 (NEOWISE)'

Just out of a two-year hibernation, NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) captured its first comet on Valentine's Day.

The first discovery by NEOWISE after its inactivity was made on Feb. 14 as it captured a frozen comet dubbed 'C/2014 C3 (NEOWISE)'. The comet was spotted when it was 143 million miles from Earth. The discovery of the comet was confirmed by the Minor Planet Center, Cambridge, Mass., after receiving follow-up observations three days later from the Near Earth Object Observation project Spacewatch, Tucson, Ariz.

During its primary mission the spacecraft successfully discovered 21 different comets.

"We are so pleased to have discovered this frozen visitor from the outermost reaches of our solar system," said Amy Mainzer, the mission's principal investigator from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif, in a statement. "This comet is a weirdo - it is in a retrograde orbit, meaning that it orbits the sun in the opposite sense from Earth and the other planets."

Discovered against a set of stationary stars, the orbit of this moving never-before-seen comet appears uncertain and seems to have arrived from the farthest point in the region of the outer planet.  The new comet has a 40,000 kilometer long tail.

According to Universe Today, the C/2014 C3 (NEOWISE) has a highly-eccentric 20-year orbit that takes it high above the plane of the solar system and out past the orbit of Jupiter.

According to The Times of India, the spacecraft spotted the comet six times over half a day before the object disappeared from view.  

Originally called the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), the prolific sky mapping telescope was shut down in 2011 after spending over a year scanning the sky for cosmic objects including asteroids and comets. It was put back into action in 2013 and was renamed NEOWISE.

The new mission of NEOWISE is to help the space agency spot the population of hazardous objects in the vicinity of Earth.  Apart from this, the reassigned  spacecraft and telescope will characterize earlier known asteroids and comets to better understand their size as well as composition.