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Credit & Copyright: NRL / SECCHI /
STEREO /
NASA
Processing - Karl Battams (NRL and @SungrazerComets)
Explanation:
After appearing in a popular photo
opportunity with a young crescent Moon near sunset, naked-eye
Comet PanSTARRS
continues to rise in northern hemisphere skies.
But this
remarkable
interplanetary perspective from March 13,
finds the comet posing with our fair planet
itself - as seen from the STEREO Behind spacecraft.
Following in Earth's
orbit, the spacecraft is nearly opposite the Sun and
looks back toward the comet
and Earth, with the Sun just off the left side of the frame.
At the left an enormous
coronal mass ejection (CME) is
erupting from a solar active region.
Of course, CME, comet, and planet Earth are all at different
distances
from the spacecraft.
(The comet is closest.)
The processed digital image is the difference between two consecutive
frames from the spacecraft's SECCHI Heliospheric Imager, causing the
strong shadowing effect for objects that move between frames.
Objects that are too bright create the sharp vertical lines.
The processing reveals
complicated feather-like structures in Comet PanSTARRS's
extensive dust tail.
Processing - Karl Battams (NRL and @SungrazerComets)
Growing Gallery:
Comet PanSTARRS at Sunset
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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 - coronal mass ejection
Publications with words: comet - coronal mass ejection
See also: