13 April 2015
First South African Comet Discovery in 35 Years
In the early hours of the 7th
April, an un-manned robotic telescope, MASTER-SAAO, situated near
Sutherland in the Karoo, discovered a new comet. This is the first comet
to be discovered in South Africa since 1978. The
Russian – South African run telescope has been scanning the southern
skies since it began operating in late December 2014, looking for
“transients” – new objects which appear in the sky for the first time.
Since then, over 60 new objects
have been discovered, most of them being erupting or exploding stars.
However, the MASTER-SAAO telescope has just discovered its first comet.
