On Dec. 16, Comet 46P/Wirtanen made its closest approach to Earth in more than 20 years, back when digital cameras and laser astronomy were in their infancy. At the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, a group of scientists led by Boncho Bonev (a physicist at American University) were giddy with anticipation. "Comet Wirtanen is only 30 lunar distances from our planet, meaning that it is about 30 times the distance to the moon.
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