NEOWISE Spots Asteroid-Turned Comet C/2013 UQ4

NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) spacecraft observed a bright comet that looked like an asteroid.

According to the space agency, NEOWISE observed the comet C/2013 UQ4 (Catalina) just a day after making its way through its closest approach to the sun. This comet was initially considered an asteroid as it looked inactive on being discovered in 2013 by the Catalina Sky Survey.

On New Year's Eve, the same year, NEOWISE also observed that the comet appeared highly inactive. But, later the comet became active, grabbing the attention of astronomers.  According to the latest observation, the comet was seen glowing brightly in the infrared wavelengths, with a faint tail that streaked more than 62,000 miles across the sky.  

This spectacular activity was driven by the vaporization of ice that was preserved from some 4.5 billion years i.e. since the time of planet formation.  

"The tail forms a faint fan as the smaller dust particles are more easily pushed away from the sun by the radiation pressure of the sunlight," said James Bauer, researcher at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

The asteroid turned comet C 2013 UQ4 is known to belong to a class of objects called damocloids. These have orbits that resemble the Halley-family comets with long periods, fairly steep inclinations and highly eccentric orbits. 

C/2013 UQ4 is estimated to take more than 450 years to orbit the sun once and spends most of the time far away at low temperatures. It also has a retrograde orbit that means the comet revolves around the sun in the opposite direction to that of the planets and asteroids. The astronomers believe that the activity of the comet would decline as it returns to the cold recesses of the space.