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Credit & Copyright: Miloslav Druckmuller
(Brno University of Technology)
Explanation:
Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) is
now
sweeping through northern skies.
Its
developing
tails
stretch some six degrees across this telescopic
field of view, recorded
from Brno, Czech Republic before daybreak on July 10.
Pushed out by the pressure of
sunlight itself, the comet's broad, yellowish
dust tail is easiest to see.
But the image also captures a fainter, more bluish tail too,
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.
In this sharp portrait of
our new visitor from the outer Solar System,
the tails of comet NEOWISE are
reminiscent of the even brighter tails of Hale Bopp, the
Great Comet of 1997.
Comet NEOWISE from Around the Globe:
Notable
Images Submitted to APOD
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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:
- APOD: 2024 June 4 Á Comet Pons Brooks Develops Opposing Tails
- APOD: 2024 April 17 Á Total Eclipse and Comets
- APOD: 2024 April 8 Á The Changing Ion Tail of Comet Pons Brooks
- Comet Pons-Brooks at Night
- APOD: 2024 March 18 Á Comet Pons Brooks Swirling Coma
- Comet 12P/Pons Brooks in Northern Spring
- Structure in the Tail of Comet 12P/Pons Brooks