Comet Elenin is coming to the inner-solar system this autumn. Comet Elenin (also known by its astronomical name C/2010 X1), was first detected on Dec. 10, 2010 by Leonid Elenin, an observer in Lyubertsy, Russia, who made the discovery "remotely" using the ISON-NM observatory near Mayhill, New Mexico. At the time of the discovery, the comet was about 647 million kilometres from Earth. Over the past four-and-a-half months, the comet has - as comets do - closed the distance to Earth's vicinity as it makes its way closer to perihelion (its closest point to the sun). As of May 4, Elenin's distance is about 274 million kilometres. Read more
On 16 October 2011, the comet will pass within about 0.23 AU (34,000,000 km) of the Earth at a relative velocity of 86,000 km/hr. This relatively bright comet can reach 4th magnitude in mid-October of 2011, and it will make its closest apparent pass in the night sky to Comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajduáková on the morning of October 8, before moving apparently close to and in front of Mars on October 15. Read more