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Credit & Copyright: Paolo Girotti
Explanation:
This sight was worth getting out of bed early.
Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE)
has been rising before dawn during the past week to the
delight of northern sky enthusiasts awake that early.
Up before sunrise, the featured photographer was able
to capture in dramatic fashion one of the few comets visible to the unaided eye this
century, an
inner-Solar System intruder that might become known as the
Great Comet of 2020.
The
resulting video
details Comet NEOWISE from
Italy rising over the
Adriatic Sea.
The time-lapse video
combines over 240 images taken over 30 minutes.
The comet is seen rising through a foreground of bright
and undulating
noctilucent clouds,
and before a background of distant stars.
Comet NEOWISE has remained unexpectedly bright, so far, with its ion and dust
tails
found
to emanate from a
nucleus spanning
about five kilometers across.
Fortunately, starting tonight,
northern observers with a clear and dark northwestern horizon should be able to
see the sun-reflecting interplanetary snowball just after sunset.
Notable Images of Comet NEOWISE Submitted to APOD:
|| July
12
|| July
11
|| July
10 & earlier ||
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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