Where is k2

We share the most interesting facts about K2, gathered from years of reading, writing and dreaming about this notorious mountain Rising from the Baltoro Glacier in the heart of the Karakoram is K2, one of Earth’s most remarkable mountains. Revered in the mountaineering world, the pyramidal peak is the ultimate challenge for climbers. The world’s elite alpinists have attempted its treacherous slopes. Several have conquered the summit, but many have lost their lives. Interesting facts about K2 1. At 8,611m (28,251ft), K2 is the second-highest mountain on Earth. Only Mount Everest at 8,848m (29,029ft) is higher – by 237m (778ft). (Source: 2. K2 is one of the 14 (Source: 3. K2 got its name when in 1856 Thomas George Montgomerie – a British officer working for the Great Trigonometrical Survey of (Source: 4. The nameMount Godwin-Austenis occasionally used in honour ofHenry Godwin-Austen, an early explorer of the area. The Royal Geographical Society rejected the name, but it was used on numerous maps and is still seen in places. (Source: K2 seen from Concordia camp 5. Another name more commonly used is Chogori, derived from two Balti words, chhogo(big) andri(mountain). This may just be a name created by western explorers or possibly a confused response to the question “what’s that called?” as very few local people would have ventured close to K2. (Source: 6. K2 has been known as theSavage Mountain ever since George Bell used the term following an expedition in 1953. Having nearly...

"It should brighten tomagnitude8 or even 7, still too dim for the unaided eye," EarthSky wrote. Sharp-eyed viewers can usually spot stars of magnitude 6 in dark-sky conditions with no aid. In the case of this comet, you will also need areas away from light pollution to spot it with a telescope. "The darker the skies, the better the contrast will be," EarthSky advised. As the comet approaches us, professional observatories may be able to figure out how big its nucleus is. Early observations by the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) suggested K2's nucleus could be between 18 and 100 miles (30 to 160 kilometers) wide; In 2017, — — — An archival search of CFHT imagery suggested K2 was active at least as far back as 2013, when it was between the orbits of Uranus and Neptune, NASA said at the time. All predictions for comet activity are subject to change, however. Comets are prone to falling apart or brightening unpredictably when the draw close to the intense heat and gravity of our sun. That characteristic, however, makes them all the more interesting to astronomers who want to understand how comets are put together. Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace . Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook .

> Let's say you're not the person in your social group who can point out the (opens in a new tab) of the movie Contact. But let's also say you are someone who can easily spot the Big Dipper on a moonless night. In that case, you’re in the sweet spot to be wondering to yourself, " Hey um, what was the deal with that comet people were talking about the other day? Can I still see that?" C/2017 K2 (PanSTARRS), sometimes called the K2 "megacomet," came closest to Earth on (opens in a new tab), at a distance of about (opens in a new tab), about 1.8 times the distance between Earth and the sun. Stargazers with telescopes have been tracking it for a while and (opens in a new tab), and now Earth is waving goodbye to the comet as it leaves. But if you’re reading this and it’s still summer, the now-receding comet is currently moving in a direction that will take it closer to the sun, and there’s a good chance you can still get a look at it if you own, or can borrow, a telescope. What is C/2017 K2 (PanSTARRS)? The comet seems to have originated in the Oort cloud, a likely collection of ice and rocks way out past the last of the planets at the edge of our solar system. The chunks are too faint to see — even with the The sun’s gravity occasionally coaxes one of these chunks out of its comfort zone in the Oort cloud and into our general neighborhood, and then it’s showtime. When the sun’s rays cause comets to release gases, that’s how they get their telltale glow, and occasionally become...

This Hubble Space Telescope image shows a fuzzy cloud of dust, called a coma, surrounding the comet ... [+] C/2017 K2 PANSTARRS (K2), the farthest active comet ever observed entering the solar system. The image was taken in June 2017 by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3. NASA, ESA, and D. Jewitt (UCLA) Now July’s full Moon has come and gone it’s time to start looking for one of the biggest comets ever discovered. Editor When it was discovered in 2017 C/2017 K2 Panstarrs was 16 times the Earth-Sun distance. It’s a big comet, with the Hubble Space Telescope reckoning it to have a nucleus of about 11 miles/18 kilometers—about 10 times bigger than most comets. Its coma (atmosphere) is about 81,000 miles/130,000 kilometers in diameter. The “averted vision” technique is what comet-hunters use to see such objects properly. It works because the human eye’s peripheral vision is the most sensitive to brightness, rather than the center of the eye, which sees color. Once you’ve got C/2017 K2 Panstarrs in the crosshairs of your telescope look slightly away from it to really appreciate its brightness. A Estimated to be 80 miles across and with a mass of 500 trillion tons, comet C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein) has the largest icy comet nucleus ever seen. It’s now on a once-in 600,000-years visit to our solar system, but about two billion miles away. Its closest approach to the Sun won’t be until 2031. Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.

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