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[i]The first and bigger of the two comets will be visible Monday to the naked eye in the southern hemisphere...[/i]
[i]On March 22, BA14 came within 2.2 million miles of Earth, that's only 9 times the Earth-moon distance. Interestingly, it flew past Earth only a day later than another comet, 252P/LINEAR, which is a well-known comet having been discovered way back in 2000. Estimates of 252P's nucleus size put it at around 250 meters (820 feet) wide and BA14 was presumed to be around half that size. Due to their similar orbits, astronomers believe both objects were once likely part of the same object that broke up some time in the past. However, as BA14 made its Earthly close encounter last week, NASA's Goldstone Solar System Radar in California's Mojave Desert was able to spend 3 nights observing the object, revealing its spin and true size. This hunk of ancient icy space rock spins once on its axis every 35 to 40 hours is 1 kilometer (3,000 feet) wide! This is a lot bigger than previously estimated...[/i]
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