Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE Near Barcelona. | Photo by Albert Llop / NurPhoto via Getty Images
For any early birds who have ventured outside in the US this week, you may have seen a tiny — yet spectacular — sight in the pre-dawn sky. A comet with a bright, opulent tail has been gracing the skies in the wee morning hours before sunrise, and it’s been giving photographers quite the show for the last week.
The comet is known as Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE — or just NEOWISE for short. Scientists just discovered the rock on March 27th. It gets its name from the NASA mission that discovered it, also called NEOWISE, for Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. The mission consists of a spacecraft in orbit around Earth that’s tasked with cataloging as many asteroids near Earth as possible — especially any that might be…