In July 2007, Quanzhi Ye, a 19-year-old meteorology student at China's Sun Yat-sen University, discovered something amazing.  While observing an image taken days before, Ye finds something that is not a star, but is a comet.  Not only is it a comet that is heading towards Earth, it is also green.

Comet Lulin will soon be visible to the naked eye.  Comet Lulin is green because of the gases that make up its atmosphere, relative to the size of Jupiter.  The comet is emitting cyanogen, a poisonous gas often found in comets, and diatomic carbon from its nucleus.  Both of these gases create a green glow when they are illuminated by the sunlight in space.

If you want to see the green comet yourself, you need to be an early riser.  The comet is visible at 3:00 am, and can be seen 1/3 of the way up from the Southern sky before dawn.  It is expected to be easier to find on February 16th and February 24th.  On the 24th, the comet is supposed to be the closest to Earth than ever before.  It will be a few degrees away from Saturn in the constellation Leo.

The dream of discovering a comet was realized for Quanzhi Ye, who first marveled at Hale-Bopp at age 7.  The fact that dreams can become reality is not lost on us.  Our dream is also green, but of a different nature.  If we can work together, like Ye and the others that made this spotting possible, then we can also make our future more green.

(Original NASA article)