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Credit & Copyright: Rolando Ligustri
(CARA Project,
CAST)
Explanation:
Comet ATLAS C/2019 Y4
was discovered by the NASA funded
Asteroid
Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System,
the last comet discovery reported in 2019.
Now growing brighter in northern night skies, the comet's pretty
greenish coma is at the upper left of
this
telescopic skyview
captured from a remotely operated observatory
in New Mexico on March 18.
At lower right are M81 and M82, well-known as
large, gravitationally interacting galaxies.
Seen through faint dust clouds above the Milky Way,
the galaxy pair lies about 12 million light-years distant, toward
the constellation Ursa Major.
In bound Comet ATLAS is about 9 light-minutes from Earth, still beyond the
orbit of Mars.
The comet's elongated orbit is similar to
orbit of the
Great
Comet of 1844
though, a trajectory that will return
this comet to the inner Solar System in about 6,000 years.
Comet ATLAS
will reach a perihelion
or closest approach to the Sun on May 31 inside the orbit of Mercury and
may become a naked-eye comet
in
the coming days.
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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 - M 81 - M 82
Publications with words: comet - M 81 - M 82
See also:
- APOD: 2024 October 21 Á Comet Tsuchinshan ATLAS over California
- Comet Tsuchinshan ATLAS Flys Away
- Most of Comet Tsuchinshan ATLAS
- The Clipper and the Comet
- APOD: 2024 October 15 Á Animation: Comet Tsuchinshan ATLAS Tails Prediction
- APOD: 2024 October 14 Á Comet Tsuchinshan ATLAS Over the Lincoln Memorial
- Five Bright Comets from SOHO