Comet to Pass Close to Earth This Weekend

The Wirtanen Comet  will make one of it's closest passes by Earth in the past sixty years this weekend. The comet, named after Carl Wirtanen, an astronomer who discovered the comet in 1948, will pass by the earth just 7,199,427 miles away. Yes, that seems like a long ways away but in space terms, it's a very close pass and it means you'll be able to see it in the naked sky.

If it turns out to be too cloudy, you can also watch a live stream of the comet's pass by watching the YouTube video below.

According to Space.com, this is the 10 closest comet approaches that have occurred since 1950 and the 20th closest approach of a comet dating as far back as the ninth century A.D."

The Wirtanen Comet passes by the Earth every five or six years and should be visible in the early evening sky shortly after sunset on Saturday and again on Sunday.