The Neowise comet has been one bright spot (pun intended) in the otherwise challenging year of 2020. Easily observable comets don’t come around all that often, but this one has been putting on a very nice nightly show. Most comets simply fizzle out or fall apart before we really get to see much from planet Earth, but this one, continues to shed ice and dust, creating a very nice trail behind it. Comets like this can be 10’s of miles wide with the tail sometimes spanning millions of miles. This one is about 3 miles wide according to experts. It’s orbital path in the solar system will will take it on a 6,800 year trip before it returns near Earth again.
This space and time travel had me thinking about what it may have been like here the last time Neowise came by. According to soil and fossil records, prairies began to emerge in Iowa after glaciers receded. Initially after the major melt, much of Iowa looked similar to tundra, with bogs, wetlands, and spruce forests being common. Prairie habitat began to emerge some 10,000 years ago…and around 7,ooo years ago…about the time Neowise last passed by, prairie vegetation came to dominate the landscape. This would provide a home for North American Bison, Prairie Chickens, and a host of other species. It would, no doubt, have been amazing to see.
This image was taken around 4:10 in the morning over a grassland area in Eastern Iowa. A partial moon illuminated some of the grasses as fog settled into some of the low areas.
It made me take note of the passing of time, all while feeling timeless in the moment.