Look to the sky for New Year's Eve comet

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The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory says a comet may be visible as people welcome in 2017 on Saturday. If you miss it, don't worry! Several comets are expected to be visible throughout the year.

Apart from the traditional fireworks and illuminated ball in Times Square, look for a blazing comet to light the night sky on New Year’s Eve.

The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory said a comet may be visible as people welcome in 2017 on Saturday.

“Say farewell to 2016 in cosmic style by looking up to see the #NewYearsEve #comet on December 31,” the laboratory said in a Wednesday Instagram post.

Comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova will be near the moon on New Year's Eve, NASA said.

The comet, NASA said, was expected to appear in the western horizon on Dec. 15 and had a bluish-green head by Dec. 21. The comet is a periodic comet, which returns to the inner solar system about every 5 years.

Dr. David Reitzel, an astronomical lecturer at Griffith Observatory in California, said the comet is visible now using a telescope or strong binoculars. On Saturday, people should point their instruments to the west just after sunset to catch a glimpse of the comet, which will be just to the left of the crescent moon. For a good view, go somewhere away from residential lights.

It looks like 2017 may be a good year for comet spotting. NASA said people will be able to view several throughout the year. In fact, Reitzel said people can take a peek at Comet 45P when it's closer to Earth — about 7.5 million miles away — on Feb. 11.

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25 years of photos from the Hubble Space Telescope

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The Hubble Space Telescope drifts through space in a picture taken from the space shuttle Discovery in 1997. Twenty-five years ago the Hubble Space Telescope sent back its first photo of outer space. Since then, Hubble has provided us with some of the most detailed images ever of our solar system, our galaxy, and our universe, allowing a deep view into space and time.  NASA via Getty Images

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The image on the right is part of the first photograph taken by the Hubble Space Telescope's wide field planetary camera on May 20, 1990. A similar image taken by a ground-based telescope in Las Campanas, Chile, shows the same region of the sky. The images of the stars in the ground-based picture are fuzzy and in some cases are overlapping, because of smearing by the Earth's atmosphere. By avoiding the Earth's atmosphere, the Hubble Space Telescope gives sharper images and better resolution.  NASA

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= MANDATORY CREDIT TO NASA == (FILES) In this dated December 7, 1993 filed photo Space shuttle Endeavour astronaut Story Musgrave, left, works his way up the Hubble Space Telescope as astronaut Jeff Hoffman dangles upside down from the shuttle's robot arm as they prepare to install a new Wide Field Planetary Camera in the Hubble Space Telescope on Dec. 7, 1993. The astronauts conducted the repair mission to correct a problem with the space telescope's main mirror, and in early 1994 the first sharp images from Hubble were released.  NASA via AFP/Getty Images

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The Constellation Carina, about 20,000 light years from Earth.  NASA via AP

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The Eagle Nebula's "Pillars of Creation." The dust and gas in the pillars is seared by the intense radiation from young stars and eroded by strong winds from massive nearby stars.  NASA via AP

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Galaxy NGC 1300. It is considered to be prototypical of barred spiral galaxies.  NASA via AP

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The ring nebula Messier 57.  C. Robert O'Dell, NASA/ESA, Vanderbuilt University, via AP

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Antennae galaxies NGC 4038 and NGC 4039. Once normal, sedate spiral galaxies like the Milky Way, the two have spent the past few hundred million years intertwining with one another.  NASA/ESA via AP

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Barnard 33, the Horsehead Nebula  NASA/ESA via AP

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NGC 2174, the Monkey Head Nebula.  NASA/ESA, Hubble Heritage Team, via AP

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The three light year tall pillar of gas and dust in the Carina Nebula is being eaten away by the light from nearby bright stars. Inside, infant stars fire off jets of gas that can be seen streaming from towering peaks. The stellar nursery is located 7500 light-years away in the southern constellation of Carina.  M. Livio, NASA/ESA, Hubble 20th Anniversary Team, via AP

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Five galaxies known as Stephan's Quintet. Three of the galaxies have distorted shapes, elongated spiral arms, and long, gaseous tidal tails containing myriad star clusters, proof of their close encounters. But studies have shown that group member NGC 7320, at upper left, is actually a foreground galaxy that is about seven times closer to Earth than the rest of the group.  NASA/ESA/Hubble SM4 ERO Team, via AP

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Jets of gas heated to nearly 20,000 degrees and traveling at more than 59,000 miles per hour streams from they dying star NGC 6302, the Butterfly Nebula, in the Milky Way galaxy. The star was once about five times the mass of the Sun.  NASA/ESA/Hubble SM4 ERO Team via AP

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This false-color image shows the Carina Nebula. Outflowing winds and intense ultraviolet radiation from the large stars shape the material that is the last vestige of the giant cloud from which the stars were born.  N. Smith, University of California, Berkeley/Hubble Heritage Team via AP

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The star cluster Pismis 24 in the core of the large emission nebula NGC 6357.  NASA/ ESA, Jesus Maiz Apellaniz, Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, via AP

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The remains of a supernova explosion known as Cassiopeia A. It is the youngest known remnant from a supernova explosion in the Milky Way.  NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage STScI/AURA-ESA/Hubble Collaboration via A

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The Orion Nebula.  M. Robberto, Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA via A

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The Crab Nebula.  Allison Loll and Jeff Hester, NASA/ESA, Arizona State University, via A

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NGC 6543, the Cat's Eye Nebula.  NASA/ESA, HEIC, Hubble Heritage Team via AP

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Galaxy UGC 10214 trails a long streamer of stars.  Holland Ford, NASA,, ACS Science Team, ESA, via A

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Tendrils of a dark interstellar cloud is being destroyed by the passage of one of the brightest stars in the Pleiades star cluster.  George Herbig, NASA/ESA, Hubble Heritage Team STScI/AURA, via AP

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A tower of cold gas and dust rises from a stellar nursery called the Eagle Nebula. The soaring tower is 9.5 light-years high, twice the distance from our Sun to the next nearest star.  NASA/ESA, Hubble Heritage Team STScI/AURA via A

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Galaxy M106 is shown with additional information captured by amateur astronomers Robert Gendler and Jay GaBany. Gendler combined Hubble data with his own observations to produce this color image. It is a relatively nearby spiral galaxy, a little over 20 million light years away.  NASA/ ESA, Hubble Heritage Team, R. Gendler via AP

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