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Credit & Copyright: Fritz Helmut Hemmerich
Explanation:
A large snowball has just passed the Earth.
Known as Comet
45P/HondaMrkosPajduÀkovÀ",
or 45P for short,
the comet came 10 times closer to Earth yesterday than the
Earth ever
gets to the
Sun.
During this passage, the comet
was
photographed sporting a thin ion tail and a faint but expansive green coma.
The green color is caused mostly by energized
molecules of carbon.
Comet 45P became just bright
enough to see with the
unaided eye when it came closest to the Sun in December.
Now, however,
the comet
is fading as it heads back out to near the orbit of
Jupiter, where it spends most of its time.
The kilometer-sized
nucleus of ice and dirt will return to the inner
Solar System in 2022.
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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
Publications with words: comet
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