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Credit & Copyright: Petr Horalek
Explanation:
This Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) now sweeps through
our fair planet's northern skies.
Its
long
tails
stretch across this deep skyview from Suchy Vrch, Czech Republic.
Recorded on the night of July 13/14,
the composite of untracked foreground
and tracked and filtered sky exposures
teases out details in the comet's tail not visible to the
unaided eye.
Faint structures extend to the top of the frame,
over 20 degrees from the comet's bright coma.
Pushed out by the pressure of
sunlight itself, the broad curve of the comet's yellowish
dust tail is easy to see by eye.
But the fainter, more bluish tail is separate from the
reflective
comet dust.
The fainter tail is an ion tail, formed as ions from the
cometary coma are dragged outward by magnetic fields in the solar wind
and fluoresce in the sunlight.
Outbound
NEOWISE is climbing
higher in northern evening skies,
coming closest to Earth on July 23rd.
Notable Images of Comet NEOWISE Submitted to APOD:
|| July
15
|| July
14
|| July
13
|| July
12
|| July
11
|| July
10 & earlier ||
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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 - comet tail
Publications with words: comet - comet tail
See also:
- APOD: 2024 December 16 Á A Kilometer High Cliff on Comet Churyumov Gerasimenko
- APOD: 2024 November 27 Á The Meteor and the Comet
- APOD: 2024 November 11 Á The Unusual Tails of Comet Tsuchinshan Atlas
- APOD: 2024 November 6 Á Comet Tsuchinshan Atlas over the Dolomites
- APOD: 2024 October 21 Á Comet Tsuchinshan ATLAS over California
- Comet Tsuchinshan ATLAS Flys Away
- Most of Comet Tsuchinshan ATLAS