[6] It was widely photographed by professional and amateur observers and was even spotted by people living near city centers and areas with light pollution.

For observers in the Northern Hemisphere, the comet could be seen on the northwestern horizon, below the Big Dipper.

On July 30, Comet NEOWISE entered the constellation of Coma Berenices, below the bright star Arcturus.

The object was discovered by a team using the WISE space telescope under the NEOWISE program on March 27, 2020.

[5] It has the systematic designation C/2020 F3, indicating a non-periodic comet which was the third discovered in the second half of March 2020.

From the infrared signature, the diameter of the comet nucleus is estimated to be approximately 5 km (3 mi).

[19] Later in July 2020, other observations were also reported, including those related to coma morphology[20] and spectrographic emissions.

[21][22][23] On 31 July 2020, strong detection of OH 18-cm emission was observed in radio spectroscopic studies at the Arecibo Observatory.

[33][34] Comet NEOWISE's retrograde orbit crossed to the north of the plane of the ecliptic, to which it is inclined at approximately 129 degrees, on June 29, 2020, 01:47 UT.