C/2016 U1 (NEOWISE)

Joseph Masiero, who serves as NEOWISE deputy principal investigator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said that spotting Comet NEOWISE was "exhilarating," particularly given how rare it is for comets that are visible to the naked eye to pass by our planet.

If you miss the show this time around, you'll just have to wait another 6,800 years or so for Comet NEOWISE to make its way back to Earth.

NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) mission discovered the comet on March 27, 2020, using its two infrared channels, which are sensitive to the heat signatures given off by the object.

C/2020 F3 NEOWISE, also called Comet NEOWISE, was first spotted in late March of this year2020 by NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) mission. According to NASA, the comet's nucleus is about 3 miles in diameter and composed of dust, rock and frozen gases left over from the birth of our solar system around 4.6 billion years ago.

C/2020 F3 NEOWISE, also called Comet NEOWISE, was first spotted in late March of this year by NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) mission. According to NASA, the comet's nucleus is about 3 miles in diameter and composed of dust, rock and frozen gases left over from the birth of our solar system around 4.6 billion years ago.

Joseph Masiero, who serves as NEOWISE deputy principal investigator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said that spotting Comet NEOWISE was "exhilarating," particularly given how rare it is for comets that are visible to the naked eye to pass by our planet.

If you miss the show this time around, you'll just have to wait another 6,800 years or so for Comet NEOWISE to make its way back to Earth.