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Credit & Copyright: Xingyang Cai
Explanation:
These six panels follow daily apparitions of comet
C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS
as it moved away from our
fair planet during the past week.
The images were taken with the same camera and lens at the
indicated dates and locations from California, planet Earth.
At far right on October 12
the visitor
from the distant Oort cloud
was near its closest approach, some 70 million kilometers (about 4
light-minutes) away.
Its bright coma and long dust tail were
close on the sky to the setting Sun but still easy to spot against
a bright western horizon.
Over the following days, the outbound comet steadily climbs
above the ecliptic and north
into the darker western evening sky, but begins to fade from view.
Crossing the Earth's orbital plane around October 14,
Tsuchinshan-ATLAS exhibits a noticeable
antitail extended toward the western horizon.
Higher in the evening sky at sunset by October 17 (far left)
the comet has faded and reached a distance of around 77 million
kilometers from planet Earth.
Hopefully you enjoyed
some of Tsuchinshan-ATLAS's bid to become
the best comet of 2024.
This comet's
initial orbital period estimates were a mere 80,000 years, but
in fact
it may never return to the inner Solar System.
Growing Gallery:
Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS in 2024
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January February March April May June July August September October |
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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
Publications with words: comet
See also:
- 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
- APOD: 2024 October 7 Á The Long Tails of Comet Tsuchinshan ATLAS
- Comet at Moonrise