Star gazers were advised that the period between Saturday and late next month would be the best time to observe the comet Lulin — the first comet jointly discovered by astronomers across the Taiwan Strait.
Astronomers at the Taipei Astronomical Museum said the tail of Lulin would be most visible during that time as it moves closest to the Earth.
The museum said it took 28.5 million years for Lulin to revolve round the Sun on its own axis.
In other words, museum astronomers said, the last time the comet came to the inner part of the solar system, the ice caps of the North and South Poles had just formed, the globe’s highest mountain range, the Himalayas, had just appeared and Taiwan was still deep below the sea.
Lulin was initially described as an asteroidal object when found by Ye Quanzhi (葉泉志) at the Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China.
Three images were obtained by Lin Chi-sheng (林啟生) of the Graduate Institute of Astronomy, National Central University at Zhongli in Taiwan on July 11, 2007.
Lin acquired the images using the 41cm camera at the university’s Lulin Observatory in Nantou County.
The discovery of Comet Lulin (C/2227 N3) was part of the major achievements made by the Lulin Sky Survey project to explore the various populations of small bodies in the solar system, especially objects that might present a hazard to the Earth.
The museum said the comet steadily brightened during the last months of last year.
It was nearly magnitude 11.0 at the beginning of July, 10.5 at the beginning of August, 10.0 at the beginning of September and 9.5 at the beginning of October.
The comet is presently moving between the constellations Scorpio and Libra.
Lulin is expected to head towards Leo at an accelerating pace late next month, the museum said.
The comet will pass 0.41 Astronomical Units from earth and reach its closest distance to Earth on Feb. 24 — about 14.5 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon.
One Astronomical Unit is the distance between Earth and the Sun.
The comet is expected to reach magnitude 6 next month and will be visible to the naked eye.
Lulin will be observable low in the sky in an east-southeast direction before dawn, the museum said.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai