Objects in the night
Image: Skygazers across the Northern Hemisphere are being treated to stunning views of Comet Neowise as it streaks past Earth. Amateur astrophotographer Javier Manteca got a bonus: the International Space Station and comet Neowise are both seen transiting Madrid in this photo captured 11 July.Taken at dawn, the picture is a composition of 17 stacked images exposed every 2.5 seconds to form the skyline.Comet C/2020 F3 Neowise is named after NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer mission that discovered it in March 2020. The comet completed its perihelion, or closest pass of the Sun, on 3 July and is headed back out of our Solar System, not to return for another 6800 years.The comet’s flyby of Earth is a rare opportunity to observe and collect data on these cosmic time capsules. Many spacecraft have observed the comet, including the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory as well as astronauts on board...