The last time a comet was this close to the Earth, Captain James Cook was sailing to Australia on board HMS Endeavour.On March 22 this year, comet P/2016 BA14 PanSTARRS – will soar past the planet at a distance of just 2.1 million miles, or nine lunar distances.It is the closest a comet has flown to the Earth since July 1770, when Lexell’s Comet passed at 1.4 million miles, so close that astronomer Charles Messier recorded that it coma looked four times the size of the full Moon.

Read More: Comet in night sky this month will be closest for 246 years – Telegraph