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Credit & Copyright: Adam Block
Explanation:
Comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN)
sports a greenish coma and fainter tail, seen against
congeries
of stars and dusty interstellar clouds in this 7 degree wide
telescopic field of view
from October 17.
On that date, the new visitor to the inner Solar System obligingly
posed with two other celestial birds seen toward the center
of our Milky Way.
Messier 16, near the bottom of the frame, and Messier 17 are
also known to deep skywatchers as
the Eagle and the Swan nebulae.
While the comet
coma's greenish glow recorded in the image is due
to diatomic carbon gas fluorescing in sunlight,
reddish hues seen in the nebulae, star forming regions some 5,000
light-years distant, are characteristic of ionized hydrogen
gas.
Comet SWAN is outbound now but
still a good comet
for binoculars and small telescopes that can look
close to the southern horizon in
the northern hemisphere's early evening skies.
C/2025 R2 (SWAN) was closest to our fair planet on October 20,
a mere 2.2 light-minutes away.
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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: 2025 December 30 Á An Artificial Comet
- 3I/ATLAS Flyby
- APOD: 2025 October 6 Á The Changing Ion Tail of Comet Lemmon
- APOD: 2025 December 1 Á 3I ATLAS: Tails of an Interstellar Comet
- APOD: 2025 November 25 Á Comet Lemmon and the Milky Way
- 3I/ATLAS: A View from Planet Earth
- APOD: 2025 November 17 Á Comet Lemmons Wandering Tail