Comet NEOWISE is in a retrograde orbit, going around the sun in the opposite way of the Earth and all of the other planets.
| quote | If you were to look down on the Solar System from far above the [Earth's] North Pole you would see the [Earth and all of the other] planets orbiting the sun counter-clockwise. |
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This prompted Amy Mainzer, the JPL-affiliated NEOWISE mission's principal investigator, to go so far as to refer to Comet NEOWISE as a "weirdo" on JPL's official web page, in 2014.
| quote | "We are so pleased to have discovered this frozen visitor from the outermost reaches of our solar system," said Amy Mainzer, the mission's principal investigator from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "This comet is a weirdo - it is in a retrograde orbit, meaning that it orbits the sun in the opposite sense from Earth and the other planets." |
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"NEOWISE Spies Its First Comet"
JPL News; February 28, 2014.
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/ne...php?release=2014-067Sky & Telescope has more:
| quote | C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE), or Comet NEOWISE, is a retrograde comet with a near-parabolic orbit discovered on March 27, 2020 by the NEOWISE space telescope. It passed closest to the Sun on July 3, 2020 and if it continues to survive perihelion 0.29 AU (43 million km) from the Sun, it is expected to remain visible to the naked eye in July. By June 10, 2020 as the comet was being lost to the glare of the Sun, it was apparent magnitude 7. When the comet entered the field of view of SOHO LASCO C3 on June 22, 2020 the comet had brightened to magnitude 3. As of July, Comet NEOWISE has brightened to magnitude +1, far exceeding the brightness attained by C/2020 F8 (SWAN), and the comet has developed a second tail. One tail is made of dust and the other tail is made of gas. The comet will be less than 20 degrees from the Sun from June 11, 2020 until July 9, 2020. Closest approach to Earth will occur July 23, 2020 at a distance of 0.69 AU (103 million km). This perihelion passage will increase the comet's orbital period from about 4500 years to about 6800 years. |
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Sky & Telescope
https://skyandtelescope.org...c-2020-f3-neowise-2/