Translation from English

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Astronomy Picture of the Day- Dieter Willasch

Astronomy Picture of the Day 

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2014 December 31 
See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download
 the highest resolution version available.
Comet Lovejoy before a Globular Star Cluster 
Image Credit & Copyright: Dieter Willasch (Astro-Cabinet
Explanation: Comet Lovejoy has become visible to the unaided eye. To see the comet, just go outside an hour or so after sunset and look for a fuzzy patch to the right of Orion's beltBinoculars and a star chart may help. Pictured here, Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) was captured three days ago passing nearly in front of M79, the globular star cluster visible as the bright spot slightly above and to the left of the comet's green-hued coma. The nucleus of Comet Lovejoy is a giant dirty iceberg that is shedding gas into a long and intricate ion tail, extending across the image, as it nears the Sun. The comet is expected to become even easier to spot for northern observers during January, as it is rises earlier and, hopefully, continues to brighten.
Tomorrow's picture: cosmic fireworks

< | Archive | Index | Search | Calendar | RSS | Education | About APOD | Discuss | >
Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices

No comments:

Post a Comment

Please leave a comment-- or suggestions, particularly of topics and places you'd like to see covered