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Credit & Copyright: P-M Hedén (Clear Skies,
TWAN)
Explanation:
It looks like a double comet, but Comet PanSTARRS (C/2011 L4) is
just offering skygazers a Messier moment.
Outward bound and fading in
this
starry scene, the
well-photographed comet
is remarkably similar in
brightness to M31, the Andromeda Galaxy.
Tracking through
northern skies just below the galaxy,
the comet was captured as local midnight approached on April 3.
Both comet and galaxy
were visible to the eye and are
immersed in the faint glow of northern lights as
our own Milky Way galaxy arcs over a snowy field
near Tänndalen, Sweden.
Double star cluster
h and chi Persei can be spotted along
the Milky Way's arc high above the
comet/galaxy pair.
Follow the arc to bright
Deneb,
alpha star of the
constellation Cygnus, at the right edge of the frame.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: comet - M 31
Publications with words: comet - M 31
See also:
- APOD: 2024 April 17 Á Total Eclipse and Comets
- APOD: 2024 April 8 Á The Changing Ion Tail of Comet Pons Brooks
- Comet Pons-Brooks at Night
- APOD: 2024 March 18 Á Comet Pons Brooks Swirling Coma
- Comet 12P/Pons Brooks in Northern Spring
- Structure in the Tail of Comet 12P/Pons Brooks
- The Snows of Churyumov Gerasimenko