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Credit & Copyright: Damian Peach,
Jose J. Chambo
Explanation:
Discovered with the PanSTARRS telescope on September 7, 2016,
this Comet PanSTARRS,
C/2016 R2,
is presently
about 24 light minutes (3 AU) from the Sun,
sweeping through planet
Earth's skies
across the background of stars in the constellation Taurus.
An inbound visitor from our Solar System's
distant Oort
Cloud, its beautiful and complex
ion tail is a remarkable shade of blue.
Still relatively far from the Sun, the comet's already well-developed
ion tail is very impressive.
Emission from
unusually abundant ionized carbon monoxide (CO+) atoms
fluorescing in the increasing sunlight is largely responsible
for the pretty blue tint.
This
color image
of the blue comet is a combination
of data taken from two different telescopes during the night of
January 7.
Located at the apex of the V-shaped
Hyades star cluster in
Taurus, bright star Gamma Tauri is responsible for the glow at the
bottom left corner 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
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