Astronomy Picture of the Day - Comet, Planet, Moon
|
| |
NASA ^
| 29 Apr, 2024 | Image Credit & Copyright: Juan Carlos Casado (Starry Earth, TWAN)
Explanation: Three bright objects satisfied seasoned stargazers of the western sky just after sunset earlier this month. The
most familiar was the Moon, seen on the upper left in a crescent phase. The rest of the Moon was faintly visible by sunlight first reflected by the Earth. The bright planet Jupiter, the largest planet in the Solar System, is seen to the upper left. Most unusual was Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, below the Moon and showing a stubby dust tail on the right but an impressive ion tail extending upwards. The featured image, a composite of several images taken consecutively at the...
|
|
|
Astronomy Picture of the Day - The Changing Ion Tail of Comet Pons-Brooks
|
| |
NASA ^
| 8 Apr, 2024 | Image Credit & Copyright: Shengyu Li & Shaining
Explanation: How does a comet tail change? It
depends on the comet. The ion tail of Comet 12P/Pons–Brooks has been changing markedly, as detailed in the featured image sequenced over nine days from March 6 to 14 (top to bottom). On some days, the comet's ion tail was relatively long and complex, but not every day. Reasons for tail changes include the rate of ejection of material from the comet's nucleus, the strength and complexity of the passing solar wind, and the rotation rate of the comet. Over the course of a week, apparent changes even include a change of...
|
|
|
Night of the Comet
|
| |
IMDB ^
| 1984 | IMDB
A comet wipes out most of life on Earth, leaving two Valley Girls fighting against cannibal zombies and a sinister group of scientists.
|
|
|
Astronomy Picture of the Day - Comet Pons-Brooks at Night
|
| |
NASA ^
| 4 Apr, 2024 | Image Credit & Copyright: Dan Bartlett`
Explanation: In dark evening skies over June Lake, northern hemisphere, planet Earth, Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks stood just above the western horizon on March 30. Its
twisted turbulent ion tail and diffuse greenish coma are captured in this two degree wide telescopic field of view along with bright yellowish star Hamal also known as Alpha Arietis. Now Pons-Brooks has moved out of the northern night though, approaching perihelion on April 21. On April 8 you might still spot the comet in daytime skies. But to do it, you will have to stand in the path of totality and look away from the...
|
|
|
Astronomy Picture of the Day - Comet Pons-Brooks' Ion Tail
|
| |
NASA ^
| 26 Mar, 2024 | Image Credit & License: James Peirce
Explanation: Comet Pons-Brooks has quite a tail to tell. First
discovered in 1385, this erupting dirty snowball loops back into our inner Solar System every 71 years and, this time, is starting to put on a show for deep camera exposures. In the featured picture, the light blue stream is the ion tail which consists of charged molecules pushed away from the comet's nucleus by the solar wind. The ion tail, shaped by the Sun's wind and the comet's core's rotation, always points away from the Sun. Comet 12P/Pons–Brooks is now visible with binoculars in the early evening sky toward...
|
|
|
Astronomy Picture of the Day - Comet Pons-Brooks' Swirling Coma
|
| |
NASA ^
| 18 Mar, 2024 | Image Credit & Copyright: Jan Erik Vallestad
Explanation: A bright comet will be visible during next month's total solar eclipse. This
very unusual coincidence occurs because Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks's return to the inner Solar System places it by chance only 25 degrees away from the Sun during Earth's April 8 total solar eclipse. Currently the comet is just on the edge of visibility to the unaided eye, best visible with binoculars in the early evening sky toward the constellation of the Fish (Pisces). Comet Pons-Brooks, though, is putting on quite a show for deep camera images even now. The featured image is a composite of three very specific...
|
|
|
Astronomy Picture of the Day - Comet Pons-Brooks in Northern Spring
|
| |
NASA ^
| 9 Mar, 2024 | Image Credit & Copyright: Petr Horálek / Institute of Physics in Opava
Explanation: As spring approaches for northern skygazers, Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks is growing brighter. Currently
visible with small telescopes and binoculars, the Halley-type comet could reach naked eye visibility in the coming weeks. Seen despite a foggy atmosphere, the comet's green coma and long tail hover near the horizon in this well-composed deep night skyscape from Revuca, Slovakia recorded on March 5. In the sky above the comet, the Andromeda (right) and Triangulum galaxies flank bright star Mirach, beta star of the constellation Andromeda. The two spiral galaxies are members of our local galaxy group and over 2.5 million light-years distant. Comet...
|
|
|
COMET 12P Pons-Brooks : ( Some Images ) Dec til Today.
|
| |
Youtube ^
| 2-28-24 | Orlando
A collection of JUST a TINY few.
|
|
|
Astronomy Picture of the Day - Structure in the Tail of Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks
|
| |
NASA ^
| 16 Feb, 2024 | Image Credit & Copyright: Dan Bartlett`
Explanation: Heading for its next perihelion passage on April 21, Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks is growing brighter. The
greenish coma of this periodic Halley-type comet has become relatively easy to observe in small telescopes. But the bluish ion tail now streaming from the active comet's coma and buffeted by the solar wind, is faint and difficult to follow. Still, in this image stacked exposures made on the night of February 11 reveal the fainter tail's detailed structures. The frame spans over two degrees across a background of faint stars and background galaxies toward the northern constellation Lacerta. Of course Comet 12P's April...
|
|
|
Comet Airburst Initiated Transition to Agriculture 12,800 Years Ago, Scientists Say
|
| |
Science News ^
| October 16, 2023 | News Staff
The settlement occupants left an abundant and continuous record of seeds, legumes and other foods...By studying these archaeological layers, Professor Kennett and colleagues were able to discern the types of plants that were being collected in the warmer, humid days before the climate changed and in the cooler, drier days after the
onset of what we know now as the Younger Dryas cool period.Before the impact, the inhabitants' prehistoric diet involved wild legumes and wild-type grains, and small but significant amounts of wild fruits and berries.In the layers corresponding to the time after cooling, fruits and berries disappeared and their...
|
|
|
Astronomy Picture of the Day - Three Galaxies and a Comet
|
| |
NASA ^
| 21 Dec, 2023 | Image Credit & Copyright: Dan Bartlett
Explanation: Distant galaxies abound in this one degree wide field of view toward the southern constellation Grus (The Crane). But the three spiral galaxies at the lower right are quite striking. In
fact, all three galaxies are grouped about 70 million light years away and sometimes known as the Grus Triplet. They share the pretty telescopic frame, recorded on December 13, with the comet designated C/2020 V2 ZTF. Now outbound from the inner Solar System and swinging below the ecliptic plane in a hyperbolic orbit, the comet was about 29 light-minutes from our fair planet in this image. And though...
|
|
|
Astronomy Picture of the Day - Vega and Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks
|
| |
NASA ^
| 8 Dec, 2023 | Image Credit & Copyright: Dan Bartlett
Explanation: On December 4, periodic Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks shared this telescopic field of view with Vega, alpha star of the northern constellation Lyra. Fifth brightest star in planet Earth's night, Vega is some 25 light-years distant while the much fainter comet was about 21 light-minutes away. In
recent months, outbursts have caused dramatic increases in brightness for Pons-Brooks though. Nicknamed the Devil Comet for its hornlike appearance, fans of interstellar spaceflight have also suggested the distorted shape of this large comet's central coma looks like the Millenium Falcon. A Halley-type comet, 12P/Pons-Brooks last visited the inner Solar System in 1954. Its...
|
|
|
Astronomy Picture pf the Day - A Dust Jet from the Surface of Comet 67P
|
| |
NASA ^
| 26 Nov, 2023 | Image Credit: ESA, Rosetta, MPS, OSIRIS; UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
Explanation: Where do comet tails come from? There
are no obvious places on the nuclei of comets from which the jets that create comet tails emanate. In 2016, though, ESA's Rosetta spacecraft not only imaged a jet emerging from Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, but flew right through it. Featured is a telling picture showing a bright plume emerging from a small circular dip bounded on one side by a 10-meter high wall. Analyses of Rosetta data show that the jet was composed of both dust and water-ice. The rugged but otherwise unremarkable terrain indicates that something likely happened far under the porous...
|
|
|
Astronomy Picture of the Day - Galaxies and a Comet
|
| |
NASA ^
| 20 Oct, 2023 | Image Credit & Copyright: Dan Bartlett
Explanation: Galaxies abound in this sharp telescopic image recorded on October 12 in dark skies over June Lake, California. The celestial scene spans nearly 2 degrees within the boundaries of the well-trained northern constellation Canes Venatici. Prominent at the upper left 23.5 million light-years distant is big, beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 4258,
known to some as Messier 106. Eye-catching edge-on spiral NGC 4217 is above and right of center about 60 million light-years away. Just passing through the pretty field of view is comet C/2023 H2 Lemmon, discovered last April in image data from the Mount Lemmon Survey. Here the...
|
|
|
‘Devil’ Comet Bigger Than Mount Everest Now Heading Toward Earth after Explosion
|
| |
SLAY News ^
| October 19, 2023 - 8:21 am | David Lindfield
Scientists are reporting that a “horned” comet three times bigger than Mount Everest is hurtling toward Earth after encountering a large explosion. The
blast originated on October 5 from 12P/Pons-Brooks a cryovolcanic — or cold volcano — comet. According to Live Science, the comet, nicknamed the “Devil” due to its apparent horns, measures a colossal 18.6 miles in diameter, or the size of a small city. For reference, Mount Everest, the highest mountain on Earth, is about 5.5 miles high. This marked the second time this interstellar ice cube erupted in the last four months. The Science Times reports that...
|
|
|
Astronomy Picture of the Day - Beautiful Comet Nishimura
|
| |
NASA ^
| 11 Sep, 2023 | Credit & Copyright: Petr Horálek / Institute of Physics in Opava
Explanation: This scene would be beautiful even without the comet. By
itself, the sunrise sky is an elegant deep blue on high, with faint white stars peeking through, while near the horizon is a pleasing tan. By itself, the foreground hills of eastern Slovakia are appealingly green, with the Zadňa hura and Veľká hora hills in the distance, and with the lights of small towns along the way. Venus, by itself on the right, appears unusually exquisite, surrounded by a colorful atmospheric corona. But what attracts the eye most is the comet. On the left, in this composite image taken...
|
|
|
Comet 2023 P1 (Nishimura) : "Where To Find It"
|
| |
Youtube ^
| 9-10-23 | Orlando
Comet 2023 P1 (Nishimura) Should be visible from Hawaii very soon ? Link
to site in description. Please give me a thumbs up and subscribe trying to grow my channel thank you
|
|
|
Astronomy Picture of the Day - Comet Nishimura Grows
|
| |
NASA ^
| 9 Sep, 2023 | Credit & Copyright: Peter Kennett
Explanation: Comet Nishimura is growing. More
precisely, the tails C/2023 P1 (Nishimura) are growing as it nears the Sun. Discovered only last month, the comet is already near naked eye brightness as it now moves inside the Earth's orbit. The comet will be nearest the Earth next week, but nearest the Sun the week after -- on September 17. Speculation holds that expelled ice and dust from Comet Nishimura's last visit to the inner Solar System may have created the Sigma Hydrids meteor shower which peaks yearly in December. If so, then this meteor shower may become more active, refreshed...
|
|
|
Astronomy Picture of the Day - Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 Fragments
|
| |
NASA ^
| 3 Sep, 2023 | Credit: NASA, ESA, H. Weaver (JHU / APL), M. Mutchler and Z. Levay (STScI)
Explanation: Periodic comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 has broken up at least twice. A
cosmic souffle of ice and dust left over from the early solar system, this comet was first seen to split into several large pieces during the close-in part of its orbit in 1995. However, in the 2006 passage, it disintegrated into dozens of fragments that stretched several degrees across the sky. Since comets are relatively fragile, stresses from heat, gravity and outgassing, for example, could be responsible for their tendency to break up in such a spectacular fashion when they near the hot Sun. The Hubble Space Telescope...
|
|
|
Astronomy Picture of the Day - Three Galaxies and a Comet
|
| |
NASA ^
| 27 Aug, 2023 | Credit & Copyright: Miloslav Druckmuller (Brno University of Technology)
Explanation: Diffuse starlight and dark nebulae along the southern Milky Way arc over the horizon and sprawl diagonally through this gorgeous nightscape. The
breath-taking mosaic spans a wide 100 degrees, with the rugged terrain of the Patagonia, Argentina region in the foreground. Along with the insider's view of our own galaxy, the image features our outside perspective on two irregular satellite galaxies - the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. The scene also captures the broad tail and bright coma of Comet McNaught, the Great Comet of 2007.
|
|