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4 answers

Bright, easy to see comets are rare and cannot be predicted. All the periodic ones that come around every so often are rather dim. The bright ones come in unexpectedly from deep space, far out past Pluto, pass the Sun once and disappear back into deep space. They don't get bright until they are close to the Sun, so you have to depend on someone with a telescope noticing it when it is still dim and far away, maybe closer than Saturn but still out past Jupiter, and then the news media will start reporting on it as it gets closer and brighter.

2007-04-20 01:56:45 · answer #1 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 0 0

It is notoriously difficult to predict when a comet is going to give a good show. They might not produce as much dust as expected or not be as bright for some other reason. It's almost impossible to see them when they are not close to the Sun too.

As of 1995 there were 878 known comets, 184 of which are known to be periodic, so are expected to come back at some time. Of course a comet could appear that has never been seen before, in which case you get little warning, so cannot predict that.

There are some comets in the sky now, they are just very faint. Check out http://www.cometography.com for information on comets currently in the sky.

2007-04-20 08:58:00 · answer #2 · answered by joysam 【ツ】 4 · 0 0

C/2007 E1 (Garradd)
Perihelion: (Closest to the sun) 2007 May 23
Maximum magnitude about 12.5

2007-04-20 09:44:59 · answer #3 · answered by Surveyor 5 · 0 0

To hard to predict

2007-04-23 00:22:26 · answer #4 · answered by hilltopobservatory 3 · 0 0

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