|
Credit & Copyright: Norbert Span
Explanation:
It isn't every night that a comet passes a galaxy.
Last Thursday, though, binocular comet
C/2018 Y1 (Iwamoto) moved nearly in front of a
spiral galaxy of approximately the same brightness:
NGC 2903.
Comet Iwamoto was discovered late last year and orbits
the Sun in a long
ellipse.
It last visited the inner Solar System during the
Middle Ages,
around the year 648.
The comet reached its closest point to the Sun -- between Earth and Mars --
on February 6, and its closest point to
Earth
a few days ago, on February 13.
The
featured time-lapse video condenses almost
three hours into about ten seconds, and was captured last week from
Switzerland.
At that time
Comet Iwamoto, sporting a
green coma, was about 10 light minutes distant,
while spiral galaxy
NGC 2903
remained about 30 million
light years away.
Two satellites zip diagonally through the field about a third of the way through
the video.
Typically,
a few comets each year become as bright as
Comet
Iwamoto.
|
January February March April May June July August September October November December |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 - spiral galaxy
Publications with words: comet - spiral galaxy
See also:
- APOD: 2024 December 16 Á A Kilometer High Cliff on Comet Churyumov Gerasimenko
- APOD: 2024 December 2 Á NGC 300: A Galaxy of Stars
- APOD: 2024 November 27 Á The Meteor and the Comet
- Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 1365 from Webb
- APOD: 2024 November 11 Á The Unusual Tails of Comet Tsuchinshan Atlas
- APOD: 2024 November 6 Á Comet Tsuchinshan Atlas over the Dolomites
- Spiral Galaxy NGC 6744