Comet Lulin Should Be Visible To Naked Eye Monday Night

February 23, 2009 7:22 a.m. EST

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Stargazers might get a peek at the green comet Lulin as it travels backward in space trailing twin tails.

Late Monday night the gassy green comet will come within 38 million miles of Earth giving scientists and others a chance to watch it streak across the sky.

It will be visible in cloudless areas about 45 degrees above the horizon in southeastern skies. The very best time to see it is at about 11 p.m.

This is probably the comet's first and only trek near the Earth. To the naked eye it will appear as a large fuzzy star, astronomers say.

The comet appears green because of the diatomic carbon and cyanogen gases that are found in the comet and that glow green when the sun shines on them, scientists say.

A Chinese teenager discovered the comet in 2007 and NASA has been tracking it by satellite since Jan. 28.

NASA officials say the comet is shedding about 800 gallons of water per second as it moves closer to the sun.

To give some perspective on how close the comet will be, at 38 million miles away it is only slightly farther away than Mars can come, at 35 million miles away, or Venus, at 24 million miles away.