Professor visits Hawaii to see comet

Mike Sitko, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Cincinnati, is currently on the top of the highest volcano in Hawaii.

Sitko and a team of scientists from across the country are observing Comet Schwassman-Wachmann 3, or SW3 for short.

In 1995, the comet broke into pieces, and for the first time in history, it is possible to see what makes up the inside of a comet, according to Sitko.

"In the sense of having a good up-close look at the center, that's never been done before," Sitko said.

Sitko left May 14 to meet his team in Hawaii. He and a team of researchers and professors from Los Angeles and the University of Minnesota will have two nights of observation at the W.M. Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea, which has two of the world's largest optical and infrared telescopes.

More than half of his week-long stay will be spent traveling to the site and reaching the high altitude.

Sitko will focus on the material left by the comet, doing mineral analysis of dusty particles smaller than 1/1000th of a millimeter.

To do this, Sitko said he will use a Spectrograph, which takes the light of the comet and turns it into a picture with bands of light in different patterns. This is called a chemical pattern.

Sitko said he will compare it to chemical patterns to those found on Earth and try to find a match to determine the particles' elemental makeup.

As comets travel on their orbits, they are constantly exposed to the sun and other factors in space, Sitko said.

This affects the outer layer of comets, preventing an accurate description of its makeup.

He says this is why getting a good observation of the inside of a comet is so crucial: it hasn't been exposed to anything yet.

Comet SW3 has been around for over 75 years and will be in view until May 28.