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Visibility of comets during their outbursts and the night sky light pollution—Use the Bortle scale
Author(s) -
Gronkowski P.,
Tralle I.,
Wesołowski M.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
astronomische nachrichten
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.394
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1521-3994
pISSN - 0004-6337
DOI - 10.1002/asna.201713387
Subject(s) - light pollution , sky , sky brightness , physics , solar system , astronomy , brightness , night sky , comet , zodiacal light , astrobiology , astrophysics
In recent decades, light pollution of the night sky has become a burning issue for all humanity. The negative impact of this state of affairs is particularly burdensome for the living organisms such as humans, animals, and plants, as well as for the whole ecosystems. In addition, it has a particularly negative impact on astronomical observations carried out by professional researchers as well as by amateurs. The night sky polluted by artificial electric light makes the observations of faint astronomical bodies very difficult or even impossible. A special type of such faint celestial bodies comprises comets. However, sometimes comets manifest very large, sudden increases in their luminosity called outbursts of brightness. During the outburst of their brightness, there is a chance to record comets, which are normally objects of low brightness. In this paper, we discuss the conditions of observability of comets during their outbursts of brightness in its relation to the light pollution of the night sky. Numerical calculations are carried out for a hypothetical comet belonging to the Jupiter family. The obtained results are consistent with the observations of outbursts of real comets orbiting in the solar system.