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Credit & Copyright: Barry Riu
Explanation:
Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak
poses for a Messier moment in this telescopic snapshot from March 21.
In fact it shares the 1 degree wide
field-of-view with two well-known entries in the 18th century
comet-hunting astronomer's
famous catalog.
Sweeping through northern
springtime skies just
below the Big Dipper, the faint greenish comet
was about 75 light-seconds from our fair planet.
Dusty, edge-on spiral galaxy Messier 108 (bottom center) is more
like 45 million light-years away.
At upper right, the planetary nebula with an aging but intensely
hot central star, the owlish Messier 97 is only
about 12 thousand light-years
distant though, still well within our own Milky Way galaxy.
Named for
its discoverer and re-discoverers, this faint periodic comet was
first sighted in 1858 and not again until 1907 and 1951.
Matching orbit calculations indicated that the same comet had been
observed at widely separated times.
Nearing its best apparition and closest
approach to Earth
in over 100 years on April 1,
comet 41P orbits
the Sun with a period of about 5.4 years.
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Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: comet
Publications with words: comet
See also: