From the confines of the solar system comes this image captured by the NEOWISE infrared space telescope ( Near-earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer ) whose mission is to help NASA identify the population of potentially dangerous near-Earth objects . This is the first discovery of this space telescope since it was reactivated in September 2013 after two years of hibernation.
This new star, which has been baptized as "C / 2014 C3 (NEOWISE)" and which was discovered on February 14 at about 230 million kilometers from Earth , forms a type of comet never seen before, a "rare bug ”Between comets, since its orbit is retrograde , that is, it orbits around the Sun in the opposite direction to that of the Earth and the other planets. Be that as it may, experts believe that the comet has arrived from the outer limits of our Solar System.
The telescope was able to observe the comet six times during half a day, thus collecting images of the moving object against a background of fixed stars.
The discovery was confirmed by the Minor Planet Center in Boston (USA), the institution in charge of collecting this type of observations from all over the world.
