Shot of comet Neowise over Mount Shasta in California from the Astronomy Picture of the Day from NASA. A rare shot with the lake water mirror like. The last time this evaporating dirty iceburg that's about three and half miles wide rocketed through this corner of the solar system it was approximately 4,800 BC. And it won't be back for about 6,800 years. If it survives, refreezes and makes it back to the Oort Cloud at the edge of the solar system. I wonder who will be here to notice the return in about 8,880 CE.
I wonder how many of our ancestors even noticed it the last time it made a trip around the sun. It's only visible in the northern hemisphere this time around. Same track last time. Agriculture was just getting started. The astronomers learning to track the seasons might have noticed that there was a visitor up there with the stars. I wonder what they thought. If they had cataloged enough of the sky to even wonder. "OK, strange star, moved fast, gone now?" Maybe made a note, passed down orally. Who knows.
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